It's certainly no doubt that Criminal Minds was a big hit for CBS. The series ran for 15 seasons, and helped to either cement the careers of its many cast members, or make stars of them for the first time. The long-running procedural just wrapped its time on the air in February 2020, so many were very surprised when it was announced recently that a revival was already in the works. Now, though, a new ratings report detailing the top Netflix shows has shed some light on why the drama is going to be revisited so quickly.
Currently, the first 12 seasons of Criminal Minds have a streaming home on Netflix. While you might think that fans would have already had their fill of those episodes, especially seeing as how the show wrapped up after Season 15, it turns out that people still just can't get enough of the dark, unsub-filled drama. According to Deadline, Nielsen's latest Top 10 list of streaming shows, which was released Thursday and details the most watched shows from the last week in January, reveals that Criminal Minds was the top of the charts. This means that it knocked major Netflix hit, Bridgerton, out of the top spot.
So, just how much did people stream Criminal Minds on Netflix in the last week of January? The show's fans managed an impressive 984 million minutes streamed, while the Regency romance Bridgerton came in at 936 million minutes to nab the number two spot. Bridgerton was also still the number one original on streaming, so no one should cry into their tea for that popular series just yet.
The report notes that only streaming minutes which come via television sets (not mobile devices) are counted. In addition, only a few of our many streaming services are being used in the collection of this data right now, with Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, and Amazon being the only ones which are currently measured.
Now that we've seen the numbers, it's really no longer much of a surprise why the decision was made to revive Criminal Minds so soon after the much-talked about series finale. As we know, even though revivals / reboots of popular properties have become much more common in recent years, fans usually have to wait at least a handful of years, if not a decade or more, to revisit a beloved series in the form of new episodes.
The Criminal Minds revival, which is set to air on Paramount+, will be extra special for viewers, as talks are already underway with most, if not all, of the main cast from the final season, so that they can reprise their roles. In addition, it's said that the creative team for the revival is already being assembled, and longtime executive producer / showrunner Erica Messer is expected to return to her former duties on the show, as well.
The new Criminal Minds will follow one case over its 10-episode season, which is great and all, but I think anyone who's been bingeing episodes on Netflix is way more eager to know if Reid and J.J. will finally, actually, end up together.
Until we know more about the Criminal Minds revival, you can check out our guide to early 2021 TV to see what's available to watch right now.
