Netflix: 'Once Upon A Time' and 'The Blacklist' Are Most Popular Shows

Netflix has revealed its two most popular shows, and the results are...not all that surprising, really.

The Blacklist and Once Upon A Time are the top two shows on the streaming service, according to UBS chief research officer David Poltrack, who announced the findings at the UBS Global Media Conference. The reason this isn't all that surprising is because Netflix apparently anticipated The Blacklist being a huge hit for whichever streaming service smart enough to snap it up, since they struck an unprecedented $2 million deal with Sony Television for the streaming rights to the show. As for Once Upon A Time, it's a show that ticks a lot of boxes in Netflix's key demographics: it skews young, but isn't impenetrable for adults, nor is it so dark that it'll shy away kids. It's accessible in a way that not a whole lot of TV shows manage to be (hell, I used Netflix to help get caught up on Season 3, ahead of the Season 4 premiere back in September. Netflix was a tremendous help, in that regard).

Of course, this announcement is significant if for no other reason than that Netflix has been notoriously guarded in the past about its actual viewership data. However, UBS, a global financial firm, has assessed Netflix's business, and the result is pretty interesting.

According to Poltrack, The Blacklist and Once Upon A Time account for roughly 7 percent of all Netflix viewership, which is surprising, considering Netflix has been promoting the hell out of its own original shows, to apparently little return. Outside of House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black, Poltrack revealed that Netflix hasn't been all that good at creating hits. Their original series (such as The Killing, Peaky Blinders, BoJack Horseman, Lilyhammer, and even the aforementioned "hits" like House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black) account for only 6.6 percent of viewership. That means The Blacklist and Once Upon A Time are beating all of Netflix's original series combined.

That said, I don't think Netflix will be losing any sleep over this, considering that all of that is about to change with the four Marvel series in development, including Jessica Jones and Daredevil. They've even got their long-hyped Marco Polo series premiering tomorrow! So I wouldn't be too concerned about Netflix's prospects for the future, either way.

H/T: AV Club

Credit: NBC