Fans of the highly successful ‘The Best Man’ franchise have waited years between each movie to catch up with their favorite characters but over the holiday break they were blessed with a full eight-episode limited series ‘The Best Man: The Final Chapters.’
While the limited series is the final time fans will get to see the beloved characters, their final curtain call has proved to be a big winner for them and Peacock which streams the series.
The Morris Chestnut, Taye Diggs, Regina Hall, Terrence Howard, Nia Long, Sanaa Lathan, Melissa De Sousa, and Harold Perrineau-led franchise has just made streaming history.
According to data provided to Variety, the show that reunited the cast of the franchise first started on the big screen in 1999 and has become the streaming service’s first original show to hit Nielsen’s Top 10 streaming rankings.
After premiering on Dec. 22, “The Best Man: The Final Chapters” became Peacock’s first original project to make it onto Nielsen’s Top 10 streaming rankings.
According to data provided to NBCU by Nielsen and exclusively obtained by Variety, “The Best Man: The Final Chapters” is ranked in the No. 5 position in an early version of Nielsen’s Top 10 Streaming Originals chart for the Dec. 19-25 viewing period, during which it was available for four days. (Exact information about minutes watched during this period is not yet available.)
As such, this also marks the young NBCU-owned streamer’s biggest-ever series debut. That title was previously held by “Bel-Air,” Peacock’s dramatic reimagining of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”
Peacock has previously appeared on the Nielsen’s overall streaming rankings, but only with acquired episodes of the Paramount Network’s “Yellowstone” and the Universal Pictures movie “Halloween Ends.” Additionally, the Universal film “Nope” put Peacock on Nielsen’s streaming movies chart when it debuted on the platform months after running in theaters.
Nielsen also puts “The Best Man: The Final Chapters” as the No. 1 streaming series for Black audiences over the last two weeks. Combined with the previous record set by “Bel-Air,” viewership data seems to suggest that Peacock’s biggest successes have come not only from Black content, but from Black content that plays on nostalgia — similarly to “Bel-Air,” “The Final Chapters” follows up on the 1999 romance film “The Best Man” as well as the 2013 sequel “The Best Man Holiday.”
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Major! Kudos to creator/director Malcolm D. Lee, the cast, and Peacock!
