Paramount TV Studios Owns September’s Streaming Charts Thanks to ‘Reacher’, ‘Neagley’ and ‘Lioness’
The streaming wars are usually framed as a battle between platforms, but the studios behind the shows are often the ones winning quietly. A single production company can feed hits to several different services at once, which means its success does not always show up in any one service’s marketing. September offered a clear example of that.
The month brought a mix of release strategies, from weekly rollouts to full-season binge drops. A tough-guy franchise, its new spinoff and a Taylor Sheridan drama all landed on different services, with different schedules and different audiences. Yet they shared a common producer behind the scenes.
According to Nielsen’s streaming ratings for viewers aged 2 and older from September 1 to 30, 2026, Paramount TV Studios had 3 of the 4 most-streamed original series of the month. ‘Reacher’ ranked No. 1, while its spinoff ‘Neagley’ tied with ‘Lioness’ for third. The only other series in that group was Apple TV’s ‘Ted Lasso’.
‘Reacher’ topped the ranking with 4.6 billion minutes viewed on Prime Video. ‘Ted Lasso’ came in second with 3.6 billion minutes in its fourth season. ‘Neagley’ and ‘Lioness’ each pulled in 3.3 billion minutes, with ‘Neagley’ also on Prime Video and ‘Lioness’ on Paramount+.
‘Reacher‘ and ‘Neagley‘ both come from Paramount TV Studios and Amazon MGM Studios, with Nick Santora as showrunner on the former and co-showrunner alongside Nicholas Wootton on the latter. ‘Lioness’ comes from Paramount TV Studios and 101 Studios, with Taylor Sheridan among its executive producers. Alan Ritchson stars in ‘Reacher’, Maria Sten in ‘Neagley’ and Zoe Saldaña in ‘Lioness‘.
The fourth season of ‘Reacher’ premiered on August 12 with a 3-episode premiere, then dropped one new episode a week until September 16. It is based on the novel ‘Gone Tomorrow’, and over its first 6 weeks it racked up 5.8 billion minutes, with 8.3 billion minutes across the whole series. Nielsen combines all seasons of a series in its tallies, so catch-up viewing of earlier seasons also counts.
Trailer REACHER Season 4. Wow, Agnez Mo ngegaaaaas 🔥🔥🔥🔥 https://t.co/Nfi9bcvxMm
— GilaFilmID (@GilaFilmID) July 25, 2026
That performance has already paid off. Prime Video has renewed the show through season 6, even though season 5 is still in production. The September ranking adds more evidence that the decision was a sound one.
The spinoff may be the most impressive story. ‘Neagley’ released all 8 episodes on September 16, right after the ‘Reacher’ season finale, and drew 1.78 billion minutes in its premiere week. That nearly matched the 1.84 billion minutes ‘Reacher’ posted for its own series debut in 2022, and it even pushed the parent show out of the top spot for the week of September 14 to 20.
First trailer for ‘REACHER’ spin-off ‘NEAGLEY.’ Premiering September 16 on Prime Video. https://t.co/OoMI5RqVLi
— Film Updates (@FilmUpdates) August 12, 2026
Amazon said the first season drew 40 million viewers in its first 13 days, making it the fourth-most-viewed Prime Video original series debut in the streamer’s history. It earned a quick renewal for a second season. Maria Sten plays Frances Neagley, a Chicago private eye and former military colleague of Jack Reacher, and Ritchson also appears in the series.
On Paramount+, ‘Lioness’ rolled out its third season weekly from August 2 through September 20. It had a particularly strong close, including its first-ever billion-minute week. Its 3.3 billion minutes in September tied it with the spinoff for third place.
That makes it one of the few Paramount+ originals to compete directly with Prime Video and Apple TV in monthly rankings. It also shows how Sheridan’s wider slate keeps feeding the service. Several of his series have posted big numbers for Paramount+ this year, including new seasons of ‘Landman’, ‘Tulsa King’ and ‘Mayor of Kingstown’.
Zoe Saldaña, Nicole Kidman, and Morgan Freeman star in the first trailer for Lioness Season 3. The new season premieres August 2 on Paramount+ https://t.co/F5Q08yDNAX
— Activewurld (@Activewurld_) June 11, 2026
The momentum has not stopped. Paramount TV Studios’ CBS series ‘Marshals’ premiered its second season on October 4 as the week’s No. 1 entertainment series across broadcast and streaming, according to live+7 multiplatform data. Together, the results suggest the studio is benefiting from both established franchises and fresh spinoffs.
One caveat is that Nielsen measures total viewing minutes, not unique viewers, and short episodes, big libraries and repeat viewing can all affect accumulated totals. Still, the pattern is hard to ignore. Weekly releases and binge drops both worked, and both helped build audiences.
Which Paramount TV Studios hit deserves the top spot among September’s most-streamed original series?
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