Netflix knows the episodes that make you binge-watch the series

The on-demand video streaming site has scanned global streaming data across 25 massively popular shows (including House of Cards, Dexter, Mad Men, Sense8 and more) to zone in on the “hooked episode”, when 70% of the viewers who watched that episode went on the finish the entire season. Whats interesting is that while theres a lot of variability to the study, one thing is clear: “that one episode” is never the pilot.

It may have taken Walter White almost an entire season to become Heisenberg and Frank Underwood 13 episodes to become VP (spoiler alert!), but it turns out fans committed to these series long before those plot twists unfolded and it wasn’t in the pilot episode. None of the shows studied, in fact, sucked viewers in with their first episodes. They reviewed both their original series as well as others that are available on the service.

Pilot episodes do not immediately hook viewers to a TV show, but taking away ad breaks and linear scheduling fosters repeat viewing, according to Netflix.

Grace and Frankie creator Marta Kauffman adds that the Netflix format of offering all episodes at once allows for storylines to follow a more natural pace, since you know you have the audience’s undivided attention.

But Netflix is pretty sure the moment you got hooked wasn’t during a pilot episode.

The resistance rate was slightly lower for ensemble dramedy Orange is the New Black, it took Australia only four episodes to get hooked.

Of course, being a streaming service, Netflix is able to gather all kinds of numbers and statistics. But its research over 20 shows in 16 markets failed to see any one hooking on the pilot. “The Dutch, for instance, tend to fall in love with series the fastest, getting hooked one episode ahead of most countries irrespective of the show”, the study showed. You watch your way through a new TV show, and you get to the point when you decide that it’s fantastic and you plough through the episodes without coming up for air.

Some shows, like “Breaking Bad“, got off to a quick start – taking only two episodes to lure people in.

The research used Netflix viewer data, compiled between January and July of this year, from subscribers in Brazil, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and US. With her new Netflix original series, for example, episode four is pegged as the turning point, as the title characters are forced to “confront their fear, anger, and uncertainty head on”. That’s what defined a “hooked episode”.

This is the episode that features Don Draper (Jon Hamm) having a vision of his half-brother, while Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) makes her first move towards becoming a copy writer and Roger (John Slattery) and Joan (Christina Hendricks) are revealed to be having an affair. The HIMYM episode that seems to win viewer affection arrived on November 14, 2005, when Ted (Josh Radnor) and Marshall (Jason Segel) settle their differences with a sword fight.