Season 3 of The Lincoln Lawyer finally premiered a few days ago, and surprise, surprise, the show is already the No. 1 watched series on the streamer – at least in the U.S. I knew the show would dominate when it finally returned as part of the 2024 Netflix schedule, but I honestly wasn’t expecting it to blow one other returning drama out of the water. That returning series would be none other than Outer Banks.
Now, I’d be remiss if I didn’t note The Lincoln Lawyer has a little bit of a leg up here. The streamer premiered Season 3 of the Mickey Haller drama on October 17–a whopping week after the Season 4 premiere of Outer Banks hit the schedule to 15.5 million views. Our weekend box office column about new movie releases often makes it clear how “new” content usually outpaces the old on opening weekend though, for example.
However, there are some shows on Netflix that manage to be so popular they land that #1 slot on the streamer for weeks on end. I kind of thought Outer Banks was in that higher tier of content, given some of the numbers bandied about in the past. (The first season of the drama allegedly did more than 2.1 billion minutes of views when Netflix made the initial announcement; Netflix has since changed the way it announces numbers.)
This Isn't The First Time The Lincoln Lawyer Has Beat Out Another Heavy Hitter
Still, this is the second time The Lincoln Lawyer has come in and quietly dethroned another major Netflix show. In 2023 when the show aired Season 2, it came in and beat The Witcher for that top slot on the streamer’s rankings. At the time, the then-Henry Cavill led series had already been running for two weeks, but it’s still a feat the show has now knocked a behemoth out of a top slot twice during its return weekend.
Right now, given its status at #1, The Lincoln Lawyer is not only beating Outer Banks, but it is also beating newcomer series Nobody Wants This, which, despite its title, streamers certainly seem to want to watch. It’s also beating Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story and the new season of The Great British Bake Off. So this isn’t a situation where there’s not much that’s new on Netflix right now. The courtroom drama is outranking some heavy hitters.
In short, The Lincoln Lawyer is quite popular. If you haven’t given it a watch yet, the courtroom drama is dramatic and punches above its weight when it comes to courtroom shenanigans, mostly due to an interesting performance from its lead Manuel Garcia-Rolfo. All three seasons are available on the streamer now.
Meanwhile, Outer Banks is a part of a split Season 4 that will surely dominate the ratings once more upon its return to the 2024 TV schedule.
