The Morning ShowSource: Apple

What you need to know

  • Analysis of Apple TV+'s opening weekend suggests demand for premiere content was "modest".
  • Parrot Analytics examined the 24 hour period following the launch on November 1.
  • See was the only Apple TV+ show that broke the Top 20 most demanded shows in 2019.

A report suggests that the launch weekend demand for Apple TV+'s premier content has been fairly modest. According to analysis from Parrot Analytics via Variety, Apple's most highly touted shows mostly fell short of the demand seen for other streaming titles which have launched in 2019. Of The Morning Show, Dickinson, For All Mankind and See, only See broke into a list of the Top 20 most demanded shows which are new for 2019.

The graph below from Variety shows how the aforementioned shows stack up against the strongest streaming launches of 2019.

TV+ DemandSource: Variety

It can perhaps be expected that, with a smaller library of content than competitor streaming sites, and some very poor initial reviews of its shows, momentum for Apple TV+ may be slow at first. What is perhaps more interesting is how Apple TV+ shows performed against each other. Nearly all of the reviews pre-release put For All Mankind ahead of every other show TV+ has to offer. Despite this See's demand came in well ahead of the space-race epic. The loser of the bunch definitely seems to be The Morning Show, with demand well behind even Dickinson, starring Hailee Steinfeld. It seems that a star-studded lineup featuring Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, and Steve Carell was not enough to overcome initial reviews and reports of very poor dialogue. One BBC reviewer even described the show as "as bad as anything I've seen since we entered this golden age of telly."

Despite this, there are encouraging signs for Apple. Over on Rotten Tomatoes, user ratings for all of its flagship shows are a vast improvement on the initial offerings from critics. Even The Morning Show is reported to be much improved in episode three.

Since Apple TV+'s range of content remains fairly narrow at this stage, it is highly likely that most Apple TV+ customers are on board because of Apple's offering of a free 1-year subscription to anyone who purchases an iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac or Apple TV. As the content on offer grows, Apple will probably be able to pull more subscribers from outside of that pool and begin to grow its user base.