Holy Oil Gusher: Why 'Landman' is the Stealth Giant of Streaming

I go on Twitter on Sunday nights, and I always see what TV shows are trending. It's been a fun past couple of years, seeing shows like Industry and Knight of the Seven Kingdoms pop off with fans.

But there's one show we're not talking about enough, one that is crushing ratings at a historic gate, and one that seems to kind of avoid any discussion on Social Media unless a random clip goes viral.

That show is Taylor Sheridan's Landman , and it's a show that feels like everyone is watching it, and maybe some are not saying, or they're just not tweeting.

But it is immensely popular.

One of my favorite Hollywood reporters, The Entertainment Strategy Guy, checked the numbers for the week of January 19th in the seven days immediately following its January 18 finale.

What he found was a 26.9 million weekly view count just as it crossed the finish line. That's for the second season of a TV show!

Let's dive into what else was found.

• YouTubewww.youtube.com

The King of the Sophomore Slump (That Wasn't)

Mahy shows a dip in the second season, but not in Landman. According to Nielsen’s weekly charts, Landman is officially the biggest Season 2 show to debut in America since 2020.

It outpaced the industry's heaviest hitters, including:

• Bridgerton (Netflix)
• Reacher (Amazon Prime Video)
• Squid Game (Netflix)
• Wednesday (Netflix)

While Stranger Things Season 2 (2017) might have boasted higher cultural saturation in terms of people everywhere talking about it, the streaming landscape was a different beast then.

Landman has achieved a status that few predicted.

And it's done so relatively quietly, at least among classic Hollywood conversations. No one at parties is talking about it, and I can say in all my group chats, no one rushes to recap it or gab about it.

Again, I ask... why is no one talking about it?

The "Buzz" Disconnect

I watched this show with my wife, and we really do like it. I find the over-the-top antics and storylines great, just sink into my couch and learn a different point of view.

We really like the melodrama of it, and it always kind of finds a happy ending in all the chaos. But it's hard to find other people to talk to about the show.

It's not as noisy as White Lotus or Succession, and there aren't any think pieces on the characters or world or decisions.

We've written a lot of the same things about Yellowstone , and this feels like the same. If a show is made for middle America, and it rates there, you still have the coasts ignore it.

Sure, you can say it's all red state dads who aren't on Twitter, but these numbers are massive. They present a huge chunk of fans not only of the creator but also of people paying for Paramount+.

It also shows that the show is probably the crown jewel of streaming.

It's kind of crazy that no one has tried to tap this market on their own platforms. Again, all the mat is left in one place.

Not sure when these studios will earn to diversify content and make a lot of money, but Paramount at least found its niche for now.

Summing It All Up

Landman is currently available to stream on Paramount+. Millions of people are doing it. I wish there was more of a cultural conversation around it, because I think it's nuanced and should be explored.

I'll do a better job tracking it here, because with numbers like these, it's a show with a lot of influence. And it's tapping into something audiences crave, whether they speak up about it or not.

Let me know if you watch it in the comments.