Lucifer season 5 has racked up over 1.8 billion minutes of streaming over the past week, topping Nielsen’s rankings once again. Based on the comics by Neil Gaiman, a spin-off of his popular series The Sandman, Lucifer stars Tom Ellis as the titular fallen angel. Having grown tired of ruling over hell, he decides to move to Los Angeles, where he opens a nightclub and becomes a consultant for the L.A.P.D. He is accompanied by Lauren German and Kevin Alejandro as detectives Chloe Decker and Dan Espinoza, as well as Lesley-Ann Brandt’s demon Mazikeen.
Originally debuting on Fox, Lucifer was canceled after its third season in 2018, much to the dismay of fans. The network described their choice to cancel the show as a ratings-based decision. However, all was not lost as Netflix picked up the series later that year. The current fifth season was scheduled to be the series’ final one, but Netflix reversed their decision and opted to renew Lucifer for a sixth and final season.
Netflix’s decision to pick up the series has proved to be a smart one as Lucifer remains a ratings draw for the streaming service. According to Deadline, the show continues to place at the top of Nielsen’s ratings which measures viewing of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, and Hulu by TV screen. With the second half of the fifth season dropping on May 28th, the show was streamed for a total of 1.8 billion minutes the following week (May 31 to June 6). That marks a sizable increase of 40% from the show’s 1.3 billion minutes streamed the previous week.
The show beat out the Disney+ animated feature film Raya and the Last Dragon, which placed second on the ratings table with a total of 1.1 billion minutes viewed, as well as fellow Netflix shows Sweet Tooth and Dirty John which placed third and fourth, respectively. Moreover, Lucifer posted highly among the much sought-after 18-34 age demographic, which comprised a third of the show’s viewing audience, although this skewed towards females.
Regardless, the rating is a considerable win for both Netflix and Lucifer, one that more than justifies the decision to renew the show for a sixth season. It should be noted that the Nielsen rating comprises all 83 episodes of the show, a grand total of 67 hours worth of television. By contrast, its closest rival Raya and the Last Dragon, has a total runtime of 117 minutes, a gargantuan difference. Still, it’s positive to hear that Lucifer remains popular with both fans and newcomers.
While the show got off to a rocky start, with critics primarily complaining about its crime-procedural format, that seems to have changed quite significantly. More recent seasons have been incredibly well received by fans and critics alike, and seasons 2, 3, and 4 currently sit at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. Lucifer has the potential to continue its momentum, both in terms of ratings and critical reception as it moves towards its final season.
