Netflix’s Critically Hated Series Is Currently Number 1 on All Streaming Charts

One of Netflix’s most critically hated series is currently topping all streaming charts. The social crime thriller Clickbait currently sits at Number 1 on Nielsen’s latest report on the most-viewed streaming shows with the eight-episode series racking up 1.108 million minutes of viewing time between September 6 and September 12, beating out another popular Netflix series, Lucifer. The Nielsen report includes dates from Amazon Prime, Disney+, Hulu, and Netflix for viewers in the United States only.

Clickbait‘s top spot position isn’t a huge surprise considering that the series has been very popular since its release in late August. Clickbait centers around the kidnapping of a family man who appears to have some dark secrets, Nick Brewer (Adrien Grenier) who went missing after a video of him indicating that he would die at 5 million views went viral. However, the series takes some surprising twists and turns culminating in an unexpected ending that left many viewers and critics bewildered.

Ultimately, Nick isn’t the villain that the series initially makes him out to be but a victim of the woman who runes IT at his office who has been using his identity to catfish people online. Nick’s ultimately killed by the woman’s husband to protect her from getting into trouble. The series currently sits at a 58 percent Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes with a somewhat better Audience Score at 64 percent. 

“It was in the research. It was the stories of women who were stealing male identities and catfishing women and romancing them,” series creator Tony Ayes said. “And it was never really clear, sometimes they were lesbians but sometimes they said it was out of boredom, sometimes it was out of isolation. A couple of these women were married. It was just such an unusual thing. When I was trying to understand it and unpack it, I was drawn to the idea of a woman who feels completely invisible. Who Dawn is makes her invisible: she’s an older woman, lower middle class, working class, she is not someone that anyone would look at twice, and yet she craved to be seen. As a gay Asian man, I kind of feel like Dawn whenever I go to a gay bar. [Laughs] Gay bars are basically places where status is so important. I kind of related to being invisible and I thought that was such an interesting story to tell. She wanted to just feel visible, and she wanted to be seen by women, interestingly, because women were probably more engaged in the romantic fantasy that she wants to engage in.”

As for the rest of the streaming top 10, Netflix dominated the chart overall. Lucifer, Turning Point: 9/11 and The War on Terror and Money Heist took the second, third, and fourth slots while Hulu’s Nine Perfect Strangers and Only Murders in the Building took five and six. Netflix’s The Circle and Grace and Frankie took seven and eight while Disney+’s What If came in at number nine. The top ten was closed out by Netflix’s Sharkdog.

Clickbait is now streaming on Netflix.

Have you seen Clickbait? What did you think about the series? Does its dominance of the streaming charts surprise you? Let us know in the comments!