The top 10 list was led by Fool Me Once and Baby Reindeer, Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s chief executive, said.
Together with Bridgerton and Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen, they were Netflix’s most-viewed shows in the world with a combined audience of 360 million households.
The figures, covering the first half of 2024, were unveiled by Sarandos at the Royal Television Society conference in London.
Fool Me Once stars Michelle Keegan, the former Coronation Street actress, as a widow whose husband appeared to come back from the dead.
Based on the novel by Harlan Coben and featuring Joanna Lumley as a mother-in-law from hell, it topped the Netflix charts in 91 countries when it was first released and is now confirmed as its most-watched show of 2024.
Shows such as Baby Reindeer are 'global sensations because they were all in their own way authentically British'. Photo / Ed Miller, Netflix
Baby Reindeer may have proved controversial because the woman who claims she was wrongly portrayed as a convicted stalker in the show is suing Netflix for US$170 million, but it has been a ratings hit and picked up four Emmys at the weekend.
Its creator and star, Richard Gadd, has now signed a first-look deal with Netflix, Sarandos announced.
Bridgerton has lost none of its appeal with audiences, taking the third spot in the Netflix list. The Gentlemen, a crime caper featuring Theo James, Ray Winstone and Vinnie Jones, was fourth.
The official top 10 list will be released on Thursday, but Sarandos paid tribute to shows such as Baby Reindeer, which have been “global sensations because they were all in their own way authentically British”.
He described the UK as “the birthplace of prestige television”.
Defending Baby Reindeer, Sarandos said that the controversy over the identification of Gadd’s alleged stalker is a local one. “It’s a fairly unique British debate. This debate is not happening anywhere else in the world about Baby Reindeer,” he said.
“We’re very proud of Richard and the story he told. It is his true story. It’s not a documentary and there are elements of his story that are dramatised – we’re watching it performed by actors on television, we think it’s abundantly clear that there is dramatisation involved.”
Emma and Dexter meet for the first time on the night of their graduation in Netflix's One Day. Photo / Netflix
Netflix’s most-watched shows in the first half of 2024*
Bridgerton
Fool Me Once
Baby Reindeer
The Gentlemen
Griselda
Avatar The Last Airbender
3 Body Problem
American Nightmare
One Day
Love Is Blind
Sarandos also addressed criticism that Netflix has too much content, making it difficult for subscribers to find shows that they want to watch.
He said: “People often ask me if we really need so many movies and TV shows on Netflix. It’s a debate that you’re having here in the UK. And I always answer the same way, with an emphatic yes.
“People have such different and eclectic tastes that you cannot afford to programme for just one sensibility. You have to love it all. Prestige dramas, indie films, true crime, romantic comedies, stand-up, documentaries, reality TV… it may surprise you that people who love The Crown also like Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings. I guess Dolly is royalty in her own right, but that’s how diverse people’s tastes are.”
Bridgerton season 3, part 2. Photo / X, @bridgerton
Meanwhile, Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary, has said the lack of working-class people from outside of London in the television industry should be a source of shame.
She urged industry bosses to cast their net wider and move out of the capital.
Nandy told the Royal Television Society conference: “Frankly, if you don’t know why the film industry is so attracted to the beauty of Sunderland, or why the arts sector is buzzing in Bradford, or the potential to TV of the Welsh Valleys, it is most likely because you’ve never been there.
“And you have no right to call yourself a public broadcaster,” she said.
“Talent is everywhere. Opportunity is not. And if you’ve moved jobs and people and content, but the heads of departments and commissioners are still in an office in London, do something about it.”
Nandy told the roomful of executives in London: “For all of the efforts made by many of you in this room, it should shame us all that television is one of the most centralised and exclusive industries in the UK. Because who tells the story determines the story that is told.
“So I want to ask: if you aren’t commissioning content from every part of the country – towns and villages as well as major cities – why not?”
Nandy, whose mother worked in current affairs for Granada and whose stepfather was editor of World in Action, grew up in Wigan.
She pointed out to the audience that only 8% of the TV industry was made up of working-class people, and 23% of TV commissions were made by companies based outside London.
More shows should follow the example of Peaky Blinders, which is filmed in Birmingham and has created local jobs, she said.
The Culture Secretary was also asked to name a show she had watched recently which exemplified the UK’s creative edge.
She replied: “Oh, God. The thing that I watched most recently last night was Emily in Paris.” The Netflix show is US-made and filmed in France.
