Hulu’s popular comedy series, which won an Emmy and ran for five seasons, saw a noticeable drop in viewers during its last few episodes.
Hulu boasts a number of award-winning shows, including popular titles like Only Murders in the Building, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Dopesick. Despite this success, one of their highly-rated comedies recently concluded with a noticeable decrease in viewers.
Last week (June 22-28), viewers watched The Bear for a total of 587 million minutes, according to The Hollywood Reporter. This is after the final season premiered on June 25th. While still popular, this represents a significant drop of 36% from the 917 million minutes watched during the debut of its fourth season last year.
The latest season of The Bear focuses on the restaurant team tackling problems like a flooded basement, but the show faced its own hurdle when it first came out: a lot of other new shows were released at the same time, making it difficult to get noticed.
The show’s declining viewership could be due to increased competition – six other streaming titles each reached over a billion viewing minutes that same week, and many people were also watching the FIFA World Cup on TV. However, it’s important to remember that five other shows also exceeded a billion minutes watched during the premiere of The Bear’s fourth season in 2025.
Nielsen’s streaming numbers only count TV viewing within the United States – they don’t include time spent watching on phones, tablets, or computers. Keeping that in mind, here are the top 10 most-streamed shows and movies in the U.S. from June 22nd to 28th, 2026.
Even though fewer people watched this season, The Bear received overwhelmingly positive reviews, scoring 97% on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics loved that the final season maintained the show’s focus on compelling characters, providing a truly satisfying and memorable ending for both the story and its audience, all while staying true to the high quality that made the series so special.
Season 5 is also popular with viewers, earning an 85% audience score. While fans found it hard to see their favorite characters go, the show ends strongly and will be remembered fondly for a long time.
While viewership for The Bear’s fifth season went down somewhat, that doesn’t reflect the show’s overall success. The quality remained consistently high throughout the final season, continuing to deliver the emotional stories and strong characters that made the series so popular, ultimately providing a very satisfying conclusion.
2026-07-24 21:17