Reacher

Reacher is currently the #1 show on Amazon Prime Video, with season 2 reportedly getting 50% more viewers that the season 1 premiere. The show’s mass success has led to a third season being greenlit before season 2 ever even aired, but there’s a meme that the show has attracted a very specific type of audience that it can credit for its big numbers.

Dads. Reacher is supposedly a “dad show.”

This idea has been making the rounds for a while, including a viral TikTok video where a guy recommends that when you go home for the holidays, ask your dad about Reacher, as there is a 100% chance he’s seen it and will want to discuss it endlessly.

But this all struck me as weird. Is Reacher really a “dad” show? This giant dude who punches people how and kicks cars so hard their airbags go off? This is somehow “dad” specific? This doesn’t seem like Yellowstone, staring 68 year old Kevin Costner, a famous “dad” show where it’s a megahit no one seems to understand, due to its relative lack of virality and social media discussion.

This seemed to me like a miscalculation of audience, and anecdotally, when I’ve talked about this on social media, I get “kids” telling me they’re 25 or 23 or 21 and they too love Reacher. But then I also get “well I’m 30, I’m 35! And I like it.” Ehhh as someone around that age, I know we’re getting old. And as much as I love Reacher and think I’m exempt from this narrative, oh shoot, I do have a two year old now don’t I. I’m a dad.

Reacher

Amazon

Looking into this I discovered that…I am wrong. Reacher is a dad show. Not only a dad show, but one that heavily skews toward the audience I didn’t think was its main target. Data from season 1 says that:

Welp, that’s…somewhat definitive. I will say, the one saving grace caveat here is that these are numbers from the premiere of Reacher season 1, which is based on the Jack Reacher books which certainly do have an older, dad-skewing audience. But I do wonder if over time, if Reacher being good has made these numbers fall a bit as the audience widened to other groups. But I have no data to support this.

In conclusion, I’m getting old. I’m a dad, who may indeed like dad shows. I suppose I should just embrace that.