Wednesday brings more joy than woe to audiences (and Netflix)

The Addams Family spinoff Wednesday has been a hit by any measure: debuting at #1 in 83 out of 93 countries tracked by Netflix, watched by more than 50 million households for a record 341 million hours of viewing in its first week, and currently Netflix’s No. 3 most watched show of all time (behind Squid Games and Stranger Things season 4).

Our EmotionalDNA® data tells a similar story:

We dug into the eDNA dataset a bit deeper to explore why Wednesday scores so well with audiences. Here’s what we discovered.

There’s nothing else like it on television.
Yes, there are other shows about teenagers, supernatural shows, and murder mysteries, but Wednesday resonates emotionally in ways that no other shows come close. Its two strongest emotional attributes as measured in the eDNA database are Suspenseful and Fun – two emotions that are rarely combined effectively in TV series. No other current programming hits all the same emotional notes as the black-clad teenage misfit.

Of the 10,000+ pieces of content in the eDNA database, only Wynnona Earp even entered the threshold of what we define as emotionally similar.

In short, Wednesday lives in an emotional white space.
Not only is this proving to be in demand, it also has incredible value to Netflix. Our EmotionalDNA team calculates a metric called Content Value which measures a piece of content’s ability to retain audiences and acquire subscribers (to free and paid platforms). Wednesday has the second highest Paid Acquisition score among all Netflix titles, ranking only behind Stranger Things. It clearly has the ability to drive unique subscribers to the platform.

What can we take away from this?

• Potential consumer demand
  This particular piece of the video landscape appears to have high demand with very little supply. Developing content in a similar emotional space to Wednesday could yield high levels of reach and engagement. It could also help drive new subscribers to a paid or free platform.
• Raise license fee/IP value
  As the owner of The Addams Family IP, MGM can make a strong case to increase the fees paid by Netflix for Wednesday, because of how important and unique it is to the platform. This can also drive the price for other spin-offs from the franchise.
• Message to brands
  Netflix can now make the case to advertisers – with quantifiable data – that consumers can find content on their platform that cannot be found anywhere “Unique” has its own value proposition, and eDNA is a powerful tool that captures how unique a piece of content or an entire portfolio is.

To learn more about this custom analysis crafted by Magid’s EmotionalDNA team, current eDNA clients can reach out to their primary consultant or business development representative. Not familiar with eDNA? Let’s talk about how your organization could use eDNA data to identify content in unique spaces that address untapped emotional needs.