‘Stranger Things’ is Netflix’s most streamed show for third straight week

The fourth season of “Stranger Things” was the most streamed program on Netflix for the third consecutive week and seventh time in the eight weeks it has been available while the new action horror series “Resident Evil” finished second.

Viewers spent 102.3 million hours watching the nine-episode fourth season of “Stranger Things” between July 11 and Sunday, according to figures released by the streaming service Tuesday. Viewership was down 45.6% from the 188.19 million hours watched the previous week, the first full week the final two episodes were available.

The eight episodes of “Resident Evil” were watched for 72.67 million hours the first four days they were available.

“The Sea Beast” was Netflix’s most popular movie for the second consecutive week, with viewers spending 68.11 million hours streaming the computer-animated film about a young girl who stows away on the ship of a legendary sea monster hunter in its first full week of release. Viewership was up 103.2% from the 33.52 million hours the previous week when it was available for three days.

NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” and CBS’ “60 Minutes” were last week’s only prime-time television programs to average more than 6 million viewers, while ABC’s “Celebrity Family Feud” was the only other one to top 4 million.

“America’s Got Talent” averaged 6.431 million viewers to be the top-ranked prime-time program for the second time in three weeks, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen on Tuesday. “60 Minutes” averaged 6.012 viewers to finish second, one week after finishing first.

“Celebrity Family Feud” averaged 4.183 million viewers for games matching the Grammy-winning hip-hop group Salt-N-Pepa and the cast of the Disney+ animated series “The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder,” and the Peacock series “Bel Air” and “Saved by the Bell.”

The lone premiere on the five major broadcast networks, the ABC celebrity relative competition series “Claim to Fame,” was third in its 10 p.m. Monday time slot and 62nd for the week, including trailing 18 cable programs, averaging 1.954 million viewers.

“Claim to Fame” retained 65.6% of the audience of the 121-minute season premiere of “The Bachelorette” which preceded it. “The Bachelorette” averaged 2.977 million viewers, 22nd for the week.

Fox’s “Baseball Night in America” was the top-rated prime-time sporting event for the third consecutive week, averaging 2.382 million viewers, 43rd for the week, first among Saturday programs and Fox’s most-watched program. Most of the nation received a game between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees while other parts received a game between the Milwaukee Brewers and San Francisco Giants.

CBS won the network race for the third consecutive week, averaging 2.69 million viewers. NBC was second for the third consecutive week, averaging 2.55 million. ABC averaged 2.4 million to finish third for the third consecutive week after finishing first each of the first four full weeks of television’s summer season, thanks to its coverage of the NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Final.

Fox averaged 1.46 million viewers.

The CW averaged 370,000 viewers. A rerun of the magic competition series “Penn & Teller: Fool Us” was its biggest draw for the second consecutive week, averaging 546,000 viewers, 178th among broadcast programs. Its overall rank was not available.

The top 20 prime-time programs consisted of the CBS newsmagazine “60 Minutes”; NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” and a rerun of the drama “Chicago Fire”; four ABC game shows; reruns of six CBS scripted series; the Wednesday, Sunday and Thursday editions of the CBS alternative series “Big Brother”; and four editions of the Fox News Channel political talk show “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”

Each of the top five prime-time cable programs were editions of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” with Monday’s edition averaging 3.312 million viewers. It was the fifth consecutive week that at least three broadcasts of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” have been the top-ranked prime-time cable programs.

Fox News Channel won the cable network race in prime time for the sixth consecutive week, averaging 2.149 million viewers. MSNBC was second, averaging 1.269 million and Hallmark Channel third, averaging 939,000.

The cable top 20 consisted of 14 Fox News Channel weeknight political talk shows — five broadcasts each of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and “Hannity” and four of “The Ingraham Angle”; two 60-minute segments of MSNBC’s coverage of the House Select Committee hearings on the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol; the July 11 edition of the MSNBC news and opinion program “The Rachel Maddow Show”; the July 12 edition of the MSNBC news and political commentary program, “The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell,” which followed that night’s hearings coverage; History’s UFO investigation series, “The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch”; and the TLC dating series “90 Day Fiance.”

The week’s House Select Committee hearings with the biggest cable audience was the 10:02 a.m.-1 p.m. segment July 12 which averaged 3.260 million viewers, third among cable programs, trailing the Monday edition of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and the Wednesday edition of the Fox News Channel afternoon political talk show, “The Five,” which averaged 3.282 million.