Americans Watched Over 57 Billion Minutes Of The Office In 2020

Nielsen says the one-time NBC sitcom The Office was by far the most-streamed show of 2020, racking up 57 billion minutes of viewing on Netflix.

Nielsen says Americans watched over 57 billion minutes of The Office on Netflix in 2020. Based on a British series created by and starring Ricky Gervais, the Steve Carell-led NBC sitcom set in a Pennsylvania office ran for nine seasons and never once in that time finished higher than 41st in the year-end Nielsen ratings.

Indeed it’s safe to say The Office was at best a modest ratings success during its original run, despite being a darling of critics. But the show that brought the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company and its hapless Scranton office Regional Manager Michael Scott into people’s living rooms would go on to have an unlikely second life on streaming. After arriving on Netflix, The Office became the go-to binge-watching comedy choice, developing a much bigger fan following than it ever had during its nine years on regular network TV. Now however, Netflix subscribers are being deprived of The Office, as the show has made the jump over to NBC’s own streaming service Peacock.

Related: The Office: Amy Adams Almost Returned After Season 2 (Why She Didn't)

Now with 2020 in the rearview mirror there are new numbers from Nielsen that reinforce just how huge The Office was for Netflix. According to the ratings service (via Variety), the one-time NBC middle-of-the-road sitcom was streamed more than any other show in the past year, racking up over 57 billion minutes of viewing. That put it far ahead of the #2 most-streamed show, the ABC drama Grey’s Anatomy, which tallied 39.5 billion minutes on Netflix. Criminal Minds, NCIS, Schitt's Creek, Supernatural, Shameless, New Girl, The Blacklist and Vampire Diaries filled out the top ten.

In case there was any doubt left about the utter dominance of Netflix on the streaming landscape, all ten of the most-streamed acquired series belonged to the service, as well as nine of the top ten original series. Disney+ offering The Mandalorian was the sole show to break Netflix’s steel grip on the original series category, racking up 14.5 billion minutes to place fifth behind Ozark and its 30.4 billion. Disney+ did beat out Netflix in the original film category, placing seven titles in the top ten to Netflix’s three, with Frozen II leading the way with 14.9 billion minutes. The top ten in all three categories were totally dominated by Netflix and Disney+, with other streamers like Hulu and Amazon Prime failing to make a dent.

Now that The Office has been removed from the Netflix lineup and shifted to Peacock, it seems highly unlikely it will repeat its 2020 Nielsen performance in 2021 (or any other future year). Indeed, fans of the show seem distraught that they will no longer be able to binge-watch the antics of Michael Scott and the rest of the crew on Netflix, and one sad Office fan even went so far as to capture the exact moment the show left the service. Of course, The Office is not gone forever, it’s just on a different service, but there was seemingly something special about the combination of the show and Netflix. The uncanny way the semi-popular sitcom took off to become a massive streaming phenomenon is truly one of the weirder and more magical entertainment stories of recent years.

More: Every Celebrity Appearance In Netflix's Death To 2020 (And Who They Play)

Source: Nielsen (via Variety)

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