They produce great beef, have awesome fossil beds, and host the College World Series.
And now, as if I didn’t love this state before (and remember, I’m not running for anything)…
A recent survey was taken to determine which television series was binge-watched the most in every state. For Nebraska, it was CHEERS. I love you, people! (And shame on you, Massachusetts. GAME OF THRONES? I don’t recall that show being set in Boston. BREAKING BAD topped New Mexico.)
Interestingly, when you look at the map, CHEERS is the oldest series to be most binge-watched. Only TERRIERS led in two states. And some of the series chosen I would never have guessed. THE BERNIE MAC SHOW? GRACE AND FRANKIE?
And media darlings like TRANSPARENT and GIRLS were nowhere to be found.
In any event, thank you, Nebraska. And allow me to return the favor. From now on I am buying nothing but Wanda Muffin Mix, Oak Creek Farm Blue Corn Chips, Dorothy Lynch Salad Dressing, and of course Heavenly Jalapeno Jelly. Go Cornhuskers!
Thanks to reader Jason Roberts for alerting me of this story.
37 comments :
I was going to read the article you linked to, then I clicked on it and found it was a Daily Mail thing. Boo! They're a truly evil publication so maybe a little warning next time would be nice...
As for Grace & Frankie, I managed one and half episodes. The titular characters are both equally annoying in different ways, and the male leads have zero romantic chemistry. Great cast...but it's not happening.
I'm glad Oregon gets the comedy color, though outside Portland no one in this state knows PORTLANDIA exists.
Also, I know this post is about streaming, but why is SAVED BY THE BELL so "popular"? It gets binge-level scheduling on several stations, antenna and cable. nobody can be choosing to watch it.
You'd think Floridians would stream "The Golden Girls" the most. Or "Seinfeld" for New York.
"This offer is void in Nebraska."
Was that a real thing on Popeal Pocket Fisherman offers or did I see it on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson?
I love Cheers, but there is no way that this map is accurate, even by internet standards.
I grew up in Nebraska; started my broadcasting career at KBON, Omaha, on the Milkman's Matinee . . . midnight to 6am.
I like to say Nebraska is a good place to be FROM. Left there in 1964, going to the great big ol' city of Chicago.
About the only reason I go back to Nebraska is high school reunions (Omaha Benson High School, 1956 - 60th reunion this summer).
Did 25 years in radio including a stint, as you did, at KSON, San Diego. Was not fond of Dan MacKinnon - even less fond of him when he fired the entire staff of the FM station. On Christmas Eve! (I was in sales; no on-air staff at KSON.)
Love Cornhusker football ... even in these 'down' years. Hoping Mike Reilly can bring the Huskers back to top flight football.
Do NOT miss Nebraska winters, or high-humidity summers, nor their mosquitoes. Appreciate the midwestern work ethic and sense of community. Omaha has become quite a cosmopolitan city, with great restaurants, lots of things to see and do.
I prefer to read about all those things from sunny Southern California (Escondido: about 30 miles north of San Diego).
Pleased that the Cornhusker state had the good sense to binge watch "Cheers," just one of the greatest comedy shows, ever!
Best.
lyle e davis
editor/publisher
The Paper
www.thecommunitypaper.com
Fascinating! Now I know why I always start my day with a visit to your award-winning blog, Ken. Your map is not only illuminating, information-wise, but, it also explains a lot about the current present political scene.
Great post if I don't say so myself! I love where you went with the info! Thanks for the shout out!
One of Woody Allen's standup lines was, "I'm Jewish with an explanation."
To borrow from him, I love the Bernie Mac Show, with an explanation.
It's not that it's my all-time favorite sitcom. And certainly not the biggest laughs. It's that, when I discovered it (only after it was in syndication), I became amazingly fascinated with Bernie Mac. And yes, I fell in love with Bernie Mac.
He was a commanding presence every time he appeared, and he took that, he used that... and let it be THE butt of the comedy, while also teaching real lessons. Now maybe I've naively misjudged, but I really felt he was on a mission - along with the show's creator Larry Wilmore. Laughs built on characters and situations, plus a moral message.
Wilmore has his own tale about interference by network execs. Though maybe on this one, Ken, you'd be on the network's side, as Wilmore's complaint is: The execs said the show "wasn't delivering enough laughs."
Certainly Bernie Mac (as well as Wilmore, though IMO more as a writer than as a talk-show host) knew how to bring the laughs. So it wasn't as if he & Wilmore weren't capable of more laughs. And while, after all, sitcom has the very word comedy in it, I think that show's style and its stories, along with its comedy, made a great package.
I do think the stories were well constructed. And that show's version of breaking the 4th wall (a la "The Burns and Allen Show") works for me.
But hey, if it didn't get the ratings then it didn't get the ratings. Regardless, and though I wouldn't fault someone for not taking to it, I think it's a real gem.
Nice to see that Nebraskans are interested in Cheers, but if you go to the original source of this map, it turns out that it has nothing to do with streaming, and the claims made by the map's creators are wildly misleading. They admit that streaming information is unavailable, because the streaming services (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon) don't release results on a state-by-state basis.
So what did they do? They "turned to Google Trends to see which programs are being Googled the most in each state." Um, okay, but that has absolutely nothing to do with which programs are being streamed the most in each state. There's probably some overlap, to be sure, but just because residents of State X are googling a program doesn't necessarily mean that they're streaming it.
Not to mention, there *no* shows that repeat in different states. That can't possibly be correct. The ONLY state where House of Cards is the most-streamed show is Maryland? The ONLY state where Orange is the New Black is the most-streamed show is Nevada? Sorry, that's impossible.
This is one of those clickbait things that are totally devoid of factual content and transparently concocted to drive web page hits. Sorry that you fell for it.
I am as much of a born-and-raised Texan as they come, and I had to Google "Narcos" just to find out what it was. I thought at first the map said "Nachos," which would've made more sense.
Only things wrong, no mountains and no ocean.
This is a fun map, but it seemed very unlikely that people in different states are actually streaming these particular shows the most ("Reign"? "Terriers"?). And they're not.
According to the site that put the map together, "Since Netflix, Hulu and Amazon don’t release the exact results on a state-by-state basis, we simply had to turn to Google Trends to see which programs are being Googled the most in each state." So these are really the shows people searched for on Google, over an unspecified period of time. That doesn't mean a majority of people in New Hampshire are watching "Continuum."
Still, the fact that more people in Michigan Google "Dexter" than any other show should give us all pause. Not because it means they want information about becoming serial killers, but because the last season was so terrible.
fossil bed? That's where Rupert Murdoch sleeps... right?
Why is The Bernie Mac Show tinted blue, as a drama? Shouldn't it be sci-fi?
I find this data questionable. I would think a few high profile shows would have several states, particularly Breaking Bad or Orange is the New Black.
@ Bill Jones - Well done on the sleuthing. Ten years ago the very same Daily Mail reported that scientists had selected "The world's funniest jokes", and among the runners-up was the "Top joke in the UK" - totally unaware that one was Flip Wilson's ugly baby story. (https://youtu.be/O_6vhgSAhuI)
Hate to play the statistician here, but
1. Unless there has been massive polling (like you get in presidential races), these state by state breakdowns are almost always meaningless. The sample size of the small population states is tiny, sometimes single digits.
http://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2014/04/why-i-criticize-538-more-than-business.html
2. Also be on the lookout for causal reasoning jumps. Google trend = binge is an absurd leap.
3. If you go to Google Trends, you will find it impossible to recreate these results. Try comparing Game of Thrones and Grace and Frankie. (Try comparing ANYTHING and Grace and Frankie.)
The odds of all 50 states favoring different programs is astronomical. More likely, something like Game of Thrones topped the list in several states. They assigned it to the state it was most popular in, then went to the next one, like Breaking Bad, etc.
Cheers might have been the most popularly streamed show in Nebraska, but it's also possible it was #50 in the state.
And, btw, this sure ain't a Netflix-only list or Game of Thrones wouldn't be on it.
I've got to watch TERRIERS.
@ Bill Jones: Congratulations on getting to the bottom of this. Now we just have to wait for it to be put up on Wikipedia, and the whole world will believe it :-)
To prove this map is bogus...
Missouri streams The "Borgias"? I doubt the majority of out-staters even know who that is.
Pam, St. Louis
On my visit to Nebraska, I found Lincoln to be a somewhat strait-laced Madison, not quite as goofy as the Wisconsin capital but plenty of fun. And the Huskers' new downtown basketball arena draws well for both the men and women. This Terp is glad to have them as a fellow B1G member.
Don't forget Henry Fonda...
"Interestingly, when you look at the map, CHEERS is the oldest series to be most binge-watched:
Accurately, if you look at the map and notice Alaska, Star Trek is the oldest series to be most-binge-watched. This explains so much about Alaska's politics. They can see Russia from their starship.
CA is bizarre...GH is the most viewed, a soap. Figures...
Any list of great Nebraskans should include Zager & Evans.
TERRIERS is a great show. If you liked the Rockford Files and wish they could make shows like that again, you will dig TERRIERS.
Regarding Flip Wilson's ugly baby joke, I heard that years before Flip got on TV.
Lots of great folks came from Nebraska! Art Ferguson (Charlie Tuna), Johnny Carson, Hilary Swank, Malcolm X, Gerald Ford, Marg Helgenberger, Warren Buffett, Fred Astaire, Montgomery Clift and many more...including me. My mom's English teacher was Dick Cavett's dad.
Did you know Nebraska had two mass murderers? Charlie Starkweather and Dick Cheney.
I'm a bit late to the comments but.. I'm calling BS on that map. First, it's based on google hyping, not on actual streaming. Second, does it seem odd that every single state has a different show (except one single duplicate)? Game of Thrones ONLY wins in Massachusetts? Netflix's top shows like Making a Murderer only win one spot (North Dakota!)?
Nothing against Nebraska, though.
Only the Democrats have had a primary in Nebraska. So in 2 months, this post could be wrong.
Friday question: do you think there's a difference between cable shows and Netflix ones? As a writer, you're done before their air in both cases, so you're pretty much screwed if something doesn't work.
Maine residents must not have much free time. The entire Terriers series (which I loved) can be streamed in a single day.
I weep for Ohio...
Great things are from Nebraska, mainly my dad. Born in grand island and raised in Omaha. Left for California because he didn't have to shovel rain. Also, like Lyle Davis, a Benson Bunnie. Plus...he loves Cheers and is binge watching it right now. Thanks for the great post and Go Big Red!
Dorothy Lynch dressing is the BEST but not so easy to find anymore, even here in Kansas.
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