‘Chris Rock: Selective Outrage’

Courtesy of Kirill Bichutsky/Netflix

Netflix’s first live stand-up special, starring Chris Rock, pulled in enough viewers to make the streamer’s top 10 shows in the United States last week. It could not, however, break into the worldwide rankings.

The latter result was expected within Netflix, given that Chris Rock: Selective Outrage — the platform’s first foray into live programming — was released Saturday night in the United States, as opposed to Thursday or Friday for most of the streamer’s shows, and has a running time (one hour) far shorter than the typical Netflix series.

Despite those structural disadvantages, though, Selective Outrage placed seventh in the United States for the week of Feb. 27-March 5. Netflix doesn’t break down viewing time by country, supplying figures only for its global top 10. The company’s 10th ranked English-language series worldwide for the week, season two of Next in Fashion, piled up 16.16 million hours of viewing (but did not make the U.S. top 10, suggesting the bulk of its watch time came from other countries).

Selective Outrage was also only available in English over the weekend and began rolling out in other languages this week. As expected, Rock used the special to offer his (scathing) thoughts on being slapped by Will Smith at the 2022 Oscars.

Netflix’s top title for the week was season three of Outer Banks, which had 99 million hours of watch time worldwide and was the No. 1 show in 40 countries, including the United States. Season two of Sex/Life debuted in second place among series with 43.89 million hours of viewing.

More detailed viewing data on Selective Outrage could come in a few weeks when Nielsen releases its U.S. streaming charts for Feb. 27-March 5 — provided, again, that its relatively short running time and small release window for that week don’t place it outside the top 10.