Lifetime's creepy TV show 'You' has risen dramatically in popularity since debuting on Netflix, and season 2 will be a Netflix exclusive
- Data shows that online conversation for "You" has increased significantly since it debuted on Netflix.
- The show's audience demographic has shifted, as well.
- The series originated on Lifetime, but Netflix will exclusively air its second season.
Like with so many shows before it, Lifetime's creepy drama "You" has found new life on Netflix.
The series debuted on Lifetime in September, and became available to stream on Netflix December 26. Since then, the series — about a book store manager named Joe (Penn Badgley) who goes to great lengths to make struggling writer Beck (Elizabeth Lail) fall for him — has risen dramatically in popularity.
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Data from consumer-insights company Crimson Hexagon provided to Business Insider shows that daily social-media posts for "You" were declining before it went to Netflix. But as soon as it was available to stream, the show saw a big spike. The online conversation around the series has been consistent, and has seen 15,000 total posts since December 26.
Netflix has helped expand the audience demographic for the show, too. The show still skews toward women, as it did while on Lifetime, but more men have now watched the series on Netflix (28% of its audience) than they did while it was on Lifetime (23%).
Viewers 18 or below were the biggest age demographic for the show on Lifetime. On Netflix, the primary demographic has shifted to ages 18-24, as seen in the graph below.
"You" will return for its second season exclusively on Netflix rather than Lifetime.
It's not the first show to get a big boost from Netflix. "Breaking Bad" was the first major show to feel the "Netflix Effect." When the second half of its final season premiered on AMC in 2013, it doubled the ratings of the first half's premiere with a series' best 5.9 million viewers, according to Variety. The show's past seasons had been streaming after AMC signed a licensing deal with Netflix in 2011.
The second season of "Riverdale" premiered to series-best ratings in 2017 — 67% above the series premiere and double the first season finale — after the first season had been available on Netflix, according to Vulture.