Orange is The New Black Season 4 Streaming Ratings Beat Expectations

“Orange Is The New Black” fared well on its viewership numbers for its Season 4 premiere. Nielsen revealed its first findings on select streaming shows during a conference in Las Vegas, and the Netflix original series was one of them.

According to the measurement service, the premiere episode of the fourth season of “OITNB” was watched by 6.7 million people from June 17, when it debuted on the service, through June 19. The second episode was watched by 5.9 million people.

In comparison to that same week, “Orange” would be placed as the second most watched show on cable behind the June 19 episode of “Game of Thrones,” which had 10.4 million viewers.

Lionsgate, which produces the women’s prison drama, gave permission to Nielsen to reveal the numbers. Digital services such as Netflix and Amazon rarely release ratings and have only made its findings available to clients.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the ratings for reruns of “Seinfeld” on Hulu were also unveiled. In the first five days that the entire series was available on the streaming service it was watched by 706,000 U.S. viewers.

Another interesting factoid is that 44 percent of viewers who watch “Better Call Saul” on Netflix are between the ages of 18 and 34, compared with 24 percent on traditional TV. It’s unsurprising since audiences for streaming services tend to be younger.

While the companies are not likely to continue to let Nielsen unveil ratings, the numbers for “Orange Is the New Black” really beat expectations.