Shrinking is the biggest hit on Apple TV+ since Severance and Black Bird

Shrinking is the biggest hit on Apple TV+ since Severance and Black Bird

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An Apple TV+ show starring Jason Segel and Harrison Ford is drawing plenty of viewers.
Image: Apple TV+

The new comedy Shrinking has become a standout success for Apple TV+, according to two audience-tracking companies. The last new series on the streaming service to attract so much attention were Black Bird and Severance. Not that the three shows have much in common besides being able to pull in large numbers of viewers.

Shrinking starring Jason Segel and Harrison Ford is about a therapist who throws out the rule book and tells his clients what he really thinks they should do.

Shrinking continues to draw a big audience

Some TV shows get a lot of attention at first, but can’t live up to the hype. So an initial surge of interest from viewers is no guarantee of long-term success. But Shrinking’s audience for its second week is actually larger than for the first week.

Movie and TV search engine JustWatch ranked it at number 3 on its list of most viewed streaming series during the week of Jan. 30 through Feb. 5. Rival ratings company Reelgood put the Apple TV+ show at number 5 on its list of Top 10 Movies & TV available from every streaming service during the week of Feb. 2 through Feb. 8. The previous rankings were 5th and 6th, respectively.

The Apple TV+ show was only beat out by The Last of Us, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and a handful of others. Shrinking is currently more poplar than every other series available through streaming.

An Apple TV+ comedy

Shrinking was created by two of the writers of the mega-hit Ted Lasso. And the fact that screen-legend Harrison Ford is in the cast surely helps draw attention to the show.

But the primary star is Jason Segel (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Sex Tape) as a grieving therapist who ignores his training and ethics by telling his clients exactly what he thinks. The result is huge, tumultuous changes to people’s lives … including his own.

The Apple TV+ comedy earned positive comments from critics, with the review-aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes giving it an 80% approval score. Audiences like it too, as their score is 82%.

Shrinking is available now on Apple’s streaming service. Watching comes with a $6.99-per-month subscription.

The comedy couldn’t be more different from the two other Apple TV+ hits. Black Bird is a prison drama while Severance is a weird workplace drama, both of which have picked up nominations for prestigious awards. Only time will tell if Apple’s new show can match them in anything besides popularity.