This Summer’s Sleeper TV Hit: ‘Your Honor’

Over a decade ago, “Breaking Bad,” the crime drama starring Bryan Cranston, catapulted from a basic cable show with so-so ratings to a big hit after Netflix started streaming it.

And now the so-called Netflix effect is providing a boost, most unexpectedly, to “Your Honor,” another show starring Mr. Cranston — turning it into this year’s surprise summer TV hit.

The show, a below-the-radar Showtime series that premiered in 2020 and was canceled last year, has racked up some of the biggest viewership figures of any television series in the United States since it began streaming on Netflix in late May, according to Nielsen.

The series garnered more than a billion minutes of viewing time for three consecutive weeks, Nielsen said. (The “billion minute” mark is an unofficial Nielsen benchmark for a big hit.) According to preliminary Nielsen data, “Your Honor” will hit that milestone for a fourth consecutive week, and possibly a fifth too. And it has done all that with only 20 episodes — about 20 hours — available to watch.

Only three new series have reached the four-consecutive week threshold this year. Two Netflix hits, “Bridgerton” and “Love Is Blind,” made the cut. So did “Fallout” from Amazon. And among licensed series, heavyweights “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Bluey” and “Young Sheldon” have qualified.

That means the show isn’t just a sleeper hit this summer. It is, improbably, becoming one of the hits of the year.