“Only Murders in the Building” just killed it on Hulu. The Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez-starring whodunnit just had the most-watched premiere day for any comedy series in Hulu’s history, a spokesperson for the streaming service told TheWrap.
Yes, that includes “Seinfeld” — and about 400+ additional comedies that have streamed to-date on Hulu.
Of course, Hulu had far fewer subscribers when reruns of “Seinfeld” premiered on the platform in 2015. When the streaming service announced it had acquired those rights, the platform had about 9 million subscribers. Today, Hulu has nearly 43 million subs.
This whole internal-record-breaking thing seems to be going around at Hulu. “Nine Perfect Strangers” recently became the most-watched Hulu Original series premiere ever, and movie “Vacation Friends” just had the best opening weekend for a Hulu Original film.
“Nine Perfect Strangers” had a stronger premiere day than “Only Murders” did, we’re told. But again, different genres.
As is its practice, Hulu did not provide any specific viewership numbers for this story. To arrive at these records, Hulu is comparing the “total number of distinct, individual users who watched any episode of the series,” a spokesperson told us.
“Only Murders” bowed with its first three episodes on Aug. 31, 2021. To remain consistent with its own policy, viewers were only counted once whether they watched one episode or all three.
So this record is all about viewers, and not views.
“Only Murders in the Building” hails from Steve Martin, Dan Fogelman and John Hoffman. (Martin and Hoffman are writers on the show; you may know Fogelman as the “This Is Us” creator.) The trio executive produces alongside Martin Short, Selena Gomez, Jamie Babbitt and Jess Rosenthal.
The Hulu comedy follows three strangers (Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez) who “share an obsession with true crime and suddenly find themselves wrapped up in one,” Hulu’s description reads. “When a grisly death occurs inside their exclusive Upper West Side apartment building, the trio suspects murder and employs their precise knowledge of true crime to investigate the truth. As they record a podcast of their own to document the case, the three unravel the complex secrets of the building which stretch back years. Perhaps even more explosive are the lies they tell one another. Soon, the endangered trio comes to realize a killer might be living amongst them as they race to decipher the mounting clues before it’s too late.”
“Only Murders in the Building” returns on Tuesday with Episode 104: “The Sting.” That title has a special meaning viewers will soon learn — or can probably just figure out, especially if they watched Episode 103. “The Sting” was written by Kristin Newman and directed by Gillian Robespierre.
Here’s the logline for the new one: “Believing the murderer might be a famous resident whom is difficult to access, the group seeks advice from a renowned podcasting host.”
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