While Apple TV Plus has had some notable shows (Morning Show, Severance to name but two), only one show’s landed on the Nielsen Streaming Charts so far – Ted Lasso. That’s not the case anymore, as an Idris Elba-led show called Hijack can now share that distinction.
Hijack is a seven episode show that follows a plane hijacking (hence the name) during a flight from Dubai to London. A group of armed thugs take over the plane and it’s up to Sam Nelson (Elba) to use his skills as a corporate negotiator to save everyone on board.
The show’s been a critical darling, and now it can boast that it landed in at No. 7 on the weekly streaming charts, per Deadline. Hijack racked up 357 million minutes viewed from July 31 to August 6. Ted Lasso is still the streamer’s biggest hit, and the only show to land on the overall Top 10 list, which accounts for everything not just streaming.
Suits continues its overall domination with an additional 3.2 billion minutes viewed on both Netflix and Peacock. The latter has been doing very well on the charts, buoyed by The Super Mario Brothers Movie, which landed at 6 overall and Twisted Metal, a show based on a video game. That took number 10 on the streaming originals list.
Hijack is one of those shows that just garnered a lot of buzz. The show unfolds in real time and ping pongs between the events in the air and the events on the ground.
Director Jim Field Smith told The New York Times that regardless of who you are, flying is the one thing that everyone experiences together.
“Air travel is a leveler even without a hijack,” Smith said. “When you step onto an airplane … ultimately you’re all in a metal tube defying physics. All each of you has got to go on is your perceptions of what that person next to you is or does based on what they look like.”
Hijack is currently streaming.