Chris Rock’s Live Special ranks #8 on Netflix in its first full week

Chris Rock’s “Selective Outrage” comedy special, Netflix’s first foray into live programming, debuted at No. 7 on Netflix’s US TV chart with just one day and change of availability. On Days 2-9, “Selective Outrage” made its debut on Netflix’s Global Top 10 English TV list, debuting at number 8 for the week of March 6-12 with 17.79 million hours watched.

Don’t confuse the US ranking with Netflix’s publicly available and regularly reported global top 10 – “Selective Outrage” was not there in its first week. Netflix does not provide ratings or viewing hours for programs on the US TV chart, unlike the viewing hours statistics it provides for its global charts.

As a live special, “Selective Outrage” was initially only available in English, and only for accounts with English as their default language. The special began rolling out to other territories after its live premiere, reaching the Top 10 TV chart in seven new countries this week.

This week’s Global English Top 10 was unsurprisingly led by Season 4 of “You,” which debuted its second half on March 9 and racked up 75.8 million hours of views. The non-English weekly TV chart was led by the Korean drama series ‘The Glory’, the second half of which debuted on March 10. Kim Eun-sook’s series became the most watched TV program of the week with 125.5 million hours watched, and entering the overall non-English All-Time Top 10 at number 9.

Rock performed “Selective Outrage” on March 4 at Baltimore, Maryland’s Hippodrome Theater, with the show appearing on the streamer interface as any Netflix title. A pre-show and after-show exclusive to the March 4 premiere were hosted at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles, with Ronny Chieng hosting the pre-show and David Spade and Dana Carvey hosting the after-show; Amy Schumer, Cedric the Entertainer, George Lopez, Ice-T, Jerry Seinfeld, Jimmy Fallon, Kevin Hart, Matthew McConaughey, Paul McCartney, Sarah Silverman, Tracy Morgan, Wanda Sykes, Woody Harrelson, JB Smoove and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar made cameo appearances .

“Selective Outrage” received a mixed response upon its premiere; IndieWire TV critic Ben Travers gave it a “C-“, writing in his review that the special “wasn’t built to last in any way. Half the jokes were obsolete before he delivered them,” with material that “felt like top-of-mind observations, uninterested in deeper exploration or even overall coherence.”

While part of the special’s appeal was its novelty as Netflix’s entry into live broadcasting, the rerun has since been edited to obscure a punch line; yes, it was one about Will Smith and the infamous Oscars punch. In jest, Rock initially referred to the wrong Smith movie, so forget about all that. Don’t worry, plenty of punchlines about Will and wife Jada Pinkett Smith – including pretty much the entire closing section of Rock’s set – remain.

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