From The Comic's Comic

Happy Boxing Day! As a treat to my paid subscribers, I’m going to see how the paid content block works on WordPress and do a deep dive on the Netflix Engagement Report, which came out two weeks ago, with regard to their reported viewing statistics for comedy specials.

Before I hit that paywall button, here’s where I ask if you’d consider upgrading your subscription ($5/month or $50/year). I’m a freelance journalist, so every little bit supports my work reporting on comedy (and helps pay the bills in NYC). Either way, thanks for reading!

Alrighty, now for everyone, I’ll show what we’ve got to start.

If you just go by the actual report, here are the 10 most-watched comedy specials on Netflix for the first six months (January-June 2023, rounded up by Netflix to the next 100,000 hours):

1. Chris Rock: Selective Outrage — 36.2 million hours 
2. John Mulaney: Baby J — 11.9 million
3. Bert Kreischer: Razzle Dazzle — 8.3 million
4. Leanne Morgan: I’m Every Woman — 6.7 million
5. Gabriel Iglesias: Stadium Fluffy — 6.4 millon
6. Jim Jefferies: High & Dry — 5.8 million
7. My Name Is Mo’Nique — 4.1 million
8. Wanda Sykes: I’m An Entertainer — 3.9 million
9. Andrew Santino: Cheeseburger — 3.8 million
10. Amy Schumer: Emergency Contact — 3.2 million

But those numbers are merely a snapshot, and don’t give you the full context and obviously skew toward specials released closest to Jan. 1, 2023, because those would have the most potential viewers within this particular six-month data window. So here are two alternate ways to see who comedy fans were seeking out on Netflix in the first half of the year. I’m leaving out some of the data points for now, and we’ll get into the weeds after the paywall jump.

First, let’s account for when they were released, because not all of the specials were available for viewing for all 181 days (Jan-June). Trying to put them on an equal apples-to-apples comparison:

1. Chris Rock: Selective Outrage
2. Amy Schumer: Emergency Contact
3. John Mulaney: Baby J
4. Wanda Sykes: I’m An Entertainer
5. Leanne Morgan: I’m Every Woman
6. Bert Kreischer: Razzle Dazzle
7. My Name Is Mo’Nique
8. Jim Jefferies: High & Dry
9. Gabriel Iglesias: Stadium Fluffy
10. Sommore: Queen Chandelier

But since Netflix has been around much longer than six months, you also could reorganize these viewing metrics not by special, but by individual comedians. Obviously this favors comedians with the most specials available on the platform. So this ranking shows which comedian you were most likely to see on someone’s Netflix screen in the first six months of 2023:

1. Chris Rock
2. John Mulaney
3. Bert Kreischer
4. Gabriel Iglesias
5. Dave Chappelle
6. Jim Jefferies
7. Luccas Neto
8. Bill Burr
9. Leanne Morgan
10. Kevin Hart

OK. But how did I arrive at these rankings? What are the numbers? And what should we take or not take away from all of this? That’s what’s in store if you want to pay for more. If you please. And if you’ve paid but cannot see this, please let me know so I can fix it for you, thanks!