‘Paradise’ Is the Latest Hulu Blockbuster
In January 2025, Hulu gave the world precisely what it didn’t need: a post-apocalyptic thriller.
Paradise became the latest in an unending line of this kind of content.
Photo: Hulu
Give Dana Walden credit, though. She identified something new with the idea.
Now, Paradise is the latest Hulu blockbuster, and it just had a killer season.
Hulu’s Ambitions
I watch a lot of Hulu content, but here’s my confession.
Even though Sterling K. Brown is one of my favorite actors, I’ve never watched Paradise.
Photo: Hulu
This show is definitely on my list, but that list seemingly grows longer each week.
Streaming fans know what I mean. Great new programming gets added all the time.
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So, we feel like we will never catch up and must be choosy with our content.
This problem is part of the reason why I previously made a weird argument.
Photo: Getty Images/Ringer illustration
Hulu only needs eight shows per year to succeed as a streaming service.
That total is more than enough to populate the entire annual calendar with new content.
Photo: Disney
As long as Hulu achieves that goal, subscribers won’t cancel the service.
The problem is that Hulu hasn’t quite reached that goal yet, and it’s trending the wrong way.
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Both The Bear and Only Murders in the Building are heading toward their conclusions.
The Bear ostensibly ends later this year, while that building is running out of people who are murder-able.
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Disney has somehow turned Shogun into a series, though.
Also, The Secret Wives of Mormon Wives, despite a recent mishap, remains a draw.
Photo: Hulu
Hulu recently announced a spinoff, clearly hoping to follow Bravo’s model.
That cable channel has created Bravolebrities, reality stars clearly linked to its brand.
Photo: Hulu
However, fans aren’t as loyal to reality shows as scripted programming.
The data is clear on this point, which means Hulu needs new hits. And it has one.
About ‘Paradise’
Hulu streamed the first season of Paradise from late January to early March last year.
The tight viewing window served its purpose in getting people addicted to the show.
Photo: Hulu
Of course, subscribers wouldn’t have watched unless Paradise were good.
Actually, I’m underselling it. Paradise is, by all accounts, phenomenal.
Photo: The Hollywood Reporter
Season two is 90 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and has a glowing 7.9 on IMDb.
Throughout her career, the one thing that has elevated Dana Walden is her ability to identify buzzy content.
EXECUTIVE PORTRAIT – Dana Walden, Co-Chairman, Disney Entertainment, The Walt Disney Company. (Disney/Maarten de Boer)
Paradise is probably the best scripted program she has found since The Bear.
Hulu stated that Paradise’s TikTok account garnered the most views last year of any of its programs.
@paradiseonhulu Taking PTO tomorrow cause I’m about to be dissecting this finale ALL 👏 NIGHT 👏 LONG 👏 Stream it now on @hulu and Hulu on Disney+. #ParadiseHulu ♬ original sound – Paradise on Hulu
Nielsen would later publish data proving Paradise was one of the top hits of 2025.
According to the ratings service, Paradise garnered 97.4 million viewing hours through August 2025.
Photo: Disney
During the same timeframe, The Bear and Only Murders in the Building did slightly better.
Those shows earned 141.1 million and 159.1 million viewer hours.
Photo: Hulu
So, those shows later in their life cycles only bested Paradise by about 50-60 percent.
That was music to Dana Walden’s ears, and the second season became a priority.
‘Paradise’ Season Two Excels
Hulu adopted an unusual approach with year two of Paradise.
The streamer simultaneously released the first three episodes of season two.
Photo: Hulu
Let’s just say that the results more than justified the season.
Here are Paradise’s Nielsen Streaming Ratings for its first seven episodes:
- Week of February 27th – 950 million viewer minutes
- Week of March 2nd – 694 million viewer minutes
- Week of March 9th – 546 million viewer minutes
- Week of March 16th – unlisted (less than 483 million viewer minutes)
- Week of March 23rd – 639 million viewer minutes
- Week of March 30th – 690 million viewer minutes
‘Paradise’ Sign
This cycle isn’t the least bit unusual for a serial thriller like Paradise.
Viewers often stack episodes so that they can binge-watch later.
Photo: Hulu
This behavior explains why Hulu was so savvy to unleash three at the start.
You can tell from the numbers how much the program benefited from the tactic.
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People tore through all three, caught up with the fourth one, and then awaited the rest.
Now, they’re in the long, cold winter of spring due to what it represents.
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We won’t get season three of Paradise until 2027.
I know enough about the show to realize that fans are already counting down the minutes.
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This one is precisely the kind of cliffhanger entertainment that keeps people hooked.
Since we’re only two seasons into it, Hulu has an anchor program here.
NPR
The downside is that sometimes shows like this need faster resolutions.
So, the production team should be calculating an exit spot and letting Hulu know.
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I’d guess we have two or three seasons left, which tells the whole story.
Walden could easily add eight different Hulu hits.
Hollywood Reporter PHOTOGRAPHED BY DIANA KING
The problem is keeping them on the air at the same time.
Nielsen Streaming Ratings
Okay, here are Disney’s other hits on the Nielsen Streaming Ratings for the week of March 30th through April 5th:
- Grey’s Anatomy – 820 million viewer minutes
- Bluey – 779 million viewer minutes
- Family Guy – 615 million viewer minutes
- Bob’s Burgers – 557 million viewer minutes
- Criminal Minds – 548 million viewer minutes
- Zootopia 2 – 465 million viewer minutes
Hulu/Disney+
So, Disney only had seven titles on the charts this week.
That’s one of the lowest totals we’ve tracked and speaks to my growing concern.
Photo:cnet.com
The anchor titles on Disney’s streaming services aren’t performing as well lately.
However, this behavior could be attributed to the addition of more content.
Photo: Disney Careers
In particular, the live channels may be serving their purpose in giving viewers something to watch.
Many people just want to put something on in the background rather than decide what to watch.
Image: The Wall Street Journal
Pluto TV has built an entire business model from this, so it works.
Disney may be finding similar success, but this is purely speculative on my part.
Families Streaming Disney+
Until the company releases some hard numbers, we’ll never really know.
