Wednesday Addams: Netflix’s third most watched English TV show and others, what is Jenna Ortega’s Covid dance?

Streaming platform Netflix celebrated its third highest viewed English language TV show, as Wednesday accrued 752.52M hours viewing time. That’s just behind Stranger Things 4 and DAHMER - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, which in itself have been hailed for their cult success.

The series happens to be the first live-action adaptation of the Addams family in 24 years, and the first project to largely focus solely on the daughter of the Addams family. The show which stars Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams, held the number one spot on the weekly Top 10 English TV List for the second week in a row with a mega 411.29M hours viewed – smashing its record-breaking first week number of 341.23M hours viewed.

Ortega is the first Latina to portray Wednesday and she has quickly won over audiences with her hilarious deadpan and goth spirit. However, she has recently been criticised after revealing that she had Covid-19 while filming her now infamous dance scene.

What are the most watched TV shows on Netflix?

According to Netflix, nearly 115 million households globally have seen the series since its release based on the hours viewed divided by 6.8 hours. It has now broken its own record in the week of 28 November to 4 December. This means Wednesday marks the first time any English-language series on Netflix has reached 400 million hours in a week. Last year’s Squid Game had a high of 571.76 million hours in its third week of release.

The Hollywood Reporter states that it will likely pass DAHMER - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (856.22 million hours) in the coming week to take over second place and has a high chance of becoming the third Netflix show in any language to pass a billion hours of watch time in its first four weeks. Both Squid Game and season four of Stranger Things have reached this milestone, raking in 1.65 billion hours and 1.35 billion hours in the first four weeks of release, respectively.

Here are the top ten most popular English language TV shows, based on hours viewed in their first 28 days on Netflix:

1. Stranger Things 4
2. DAHMER - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story
3. Wednesday: Season 1
4. Bridgerton: Season 2
5. Bridgerton: Season 1
6. Stranger Things 3
7. Lucifer: Season 5
8. The Witcher: Season 1
9. Inventing Anna: Limited Series
10. 13 Reasons Why: Season 2

Fans flocked to new titles on the Non-English Films List. Norwegian action-adventure Troll was number one with 75.86M hours viewed, breaking the record for the most hours viewed in a week for a Non-English film.

What is Jenna Ortega’s Wednesday viral Covid dance scene?

Despite the huge success, Ortega has drawn criticism from fans after revealing that she had Covid-19 in a dance scene in the fourth episode, titled “Woe What a Night”. In the episode, the character Wednesday asks her love interest, Xavier played by Percy Hynes White, to their school’s Rave’N Dance.

Whilst she was praised for her dancing in the scene, which Ortega said she had choreographed herself, she said: “I’d gotten the song about a week before and I just pulled from whatever I could… it’s crazy because it was my first day with Covid so it was awful to film.” The song she danced to was The Cramp’s 1981 single “Goo Goo Muck”, where she treats Xavier to an eccentric choreographed routine.

Ortega relayed having “body aches” and a sore throat, while “they were giving me medicine between takes because we were waiting on the positive results”. Wednesday’s production company, MGM, told NME that “strict Covid protocols were followed and once the positive test was confirmed production removed Jenna from set”.

According to Netflix, fan generated content of Wednesday’s dance routine with “Bloody Mary” by Lady Gaga has gone viral across social media and led to a streaming increase of more than 1,800% of the song compared to the previous month on Spotify. However, many were unhappy with the fact that she had done the scene with Covid symptoms.

One social media user said: “Jenna Ortega having COVID on set and working unmasked around other unmasked performers is not a flex. She should not be praised for “working while sick.””

The company also faced backlash for reportedly allowing Ortega to work while sick, with one user saying: “she shouldve been isolated - not made to keep working while feeling ill.”

Wednesday is adapted from the Addams Family characters created by cartoonist Charles Addams, and follows the character’s attempts to master her emerging supernatural abilities, prevent a killing spree and solve a 25-year-old mystery concerning her parents.

NationalWorld has reached out to Netflix for comment.