Chris Rock’s “Selective Outrage” comedy special, Netflix’s first foray into live programming, debuted at No. 7 on Netflix’s U.S. TV Chart with just a day and change of availability. On Days 2-9, “Selective Outrage” made its debut on Netflix’s Global Top 10 English TV list, coming in at No. 8 for the week of March 6-12 with 17.79 million hours viewed.
Do not confuse the U.S. ranking with Netflix’s publicly-available and regularly-reported Global Top 10 — “Selective Outrage” did not rank there in its first week. Netflix does not provide viewership numbers or hours watched for shows on its U.S. TV Chart, in contrast to the hours viewed metric it provides for its global charts.
As a live special, “Selective Outrage” was initially only available in English, and only for accounts with English set as their default language. The special began rolling out to other territories following its live premiere and reached seven new countries’ Top 10 TV list this week.
The Global English Top 10 this week was unsurprisingly led by Season 4 of “You,” which debuted its second half on March 9 and racked up 75.8 million hours viewed. The non-English weekly TV list was led by the Korean drama series “The Glory,” which debuted its second half on March 10. The series from Kim Eun-sook racked up 125.5 million hours viewed, making it the most-viewed TV show of the week, and entering it on the overall Non-English All-Time Top 10 at No. 9.
Rock performed “Selective Outrage” on March 4 at Baltimore, Maryland’s Hippodrome Theatre, with the show appearing like any Netflix title on the streamer’s interface. A pre-show and after-show exclusive to the March 4 premiere were hosted at Los Angeles’ Comedy Store, with Ronny Chieng presenting the pre-show and David Spade and Dana Carvey presenting the after-show; Amy Schumer, Cedric the Entertainer, George Lopez, Ice-T, Jerry Seinfeld, Jimmy Fallon, Kevin Hart, Matthew McConaughey, Paul McCartney, Sarah Silverman, Tracy Morgan, Wanda Sykes, Woody Harrelson, JB Smoove, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar made guest appearances.
“Selective Outrage” received mixed reactions upon its premiere; IndieWire TV critic Ben Travers gave it a “C-,” writing in his review that the special “was in no way built to last. Half the jokes were obsolete before he finished saying them,” with material that “felt like top-of-mind observations, uninterested in deeper scrutiny or even overall cohesiveness.”
Although part of the special’s appeal was its novelty as Netflix’s entry into live broadcasts, the replay has since been edited to cover up a punchline flub; yes, it was one about Will Smith and the infamous Oscars slap. In the joke, Rock initially referenced the wrong Smith movie, so just forget all of that. Don’t worry, plenty of punchlines about Will and wife Jada Pinkett Smith — including pretty much the entire closing section of Rock’s set — remain.
