Killing Eve is enjoying a renaissance on Netflix, and the hit show has got an unlikely group to thank for its success

Killing Eve’s chart-busting Netflix debut is another third-party TV success story for the streaming titan

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Killing Eve, the stylish and sexually tense BBC thriller that was a critical and commercial hit in the UK between 2018 and 2022, has found new life onNetflix– and it’s all down to an unexpected age group.

The spy-thriller series, which joined thebest streaming service’s back catalog (in the US) on April 15, rocketed its way to number eight on the Nielsen charts – for the week running April 15 to 21 – with a whopping 719 million viewing minutes in its first week on the platform. That’s a bit behind the number one show at the time, which was theFalloutTV showonPrime Video– it amassed 2.6 billion minutes watched in its first seven days post-release. To giveKilling Eveits due, though,Amazon’s TV adaptation ofFalloutis a brand-new series, whereasKilling Evewas first released in 2018.

Unlike other huge licensed show successes that have dominated the Netflix charts, such asSuits, over the last 12 months, though,Killing Eve’s popularity hasn’t been driven by 18 to 49 year olds. PerVariety, the really interesting thing isn’t so much the numbers, butwherethose numbers are coming from. Indeed, one third ofKilling Eve’s viewers were aged 65 or above. That 33% share of the audience is, according to Nielsen (via Variety again) the largest among Netflix’s various age demographics, too.

The Netflix effect

So, what’s behindKilling Eve’s unexpected success among over-60s? It appears that it’s benefited from the same phenomenon that also madeSuitsandBrooklyn Nine-Ninebig hits, with brand new audiences finding and falling in love with the shows after they moved to the streamer.

Where the former is concerned,Suitsbecame a huge hit for Netflix in August 2023, with its subsequent popularity irking its writersat the height of the Hollywood writers strikes. Itcontinued to break streaming records on Netflix and Peacock throughout that month, too, and viewers under the age of 25 became obsessed with the legal drama on the platform itself and social media apps, such as TikTok.

Netflix’s licensing of shows likeKilling Eve, then, is particularly beneficial to TV productions that generated both positive word of mouth, plenty of critical praise, and multiple awards during their original runs, but whose best days appear to be behind them. IfKilling Evekeeps on drawing in viewers, it’s certainly possible that it’ll sneak its way onto ourbest Netflix showslist in the near future.

As mentioned, as successful asKilling Evewas in its first week on Netflix, it couldn’t hold a candle toFallout, aka one of thebest Prime Video showsever made. Nielsen points out that it’s rare for any show to get two billion-plus minutes on consecutive weeks, butFallouthas done just that with 2.9 billion in its first five days on Prime Video and a further 2.6 billion minutes the following week. When you consider that’s over just eight episodes, it’s all the more impressive. It’s the first two-billion title to achieve those numbers without being on Netflix, which has much bigger market share than its rivals. Little wonder, then, thatFalloutseason 2was announced mere days after its forebear arrived.

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Writer, broadcaster, musician and kitchen gadget obsessive Carrie Marshall has been writing about tech since 1998, contributing sage advice and odd opinions to all kinds of magazines and websites as well as writing more than a dozen books. Her memoir,Carrie Kills A Man, is on sale now and her next book, about pop music, is out in 2025. She is the singer in Glaswegian rock bandUnquiet Mind.

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