When Kapil Sharma left television for streaming, along with the rest of his team, it was suggested that this would increase his viewership. Kapil and his team had been regulars on television for over a decade as they jumped from channel to channel, but their show remained the same. The rise of streaming content in India led Kapil to perform a stand-up special for Netflix for the first time, something he hadn’t done in years, and just a couple of years later, he moved to the OTT platform with all its equipment. Netflix even reunited him with Sunil Grover, despite the two falling out in 2017. The Great Indian Kapil Show, the current version of Kapil’s show, is currently in its fourth season and after four episodes, it’s starting to look like the comedian’s worst-performing season.
The show started in March 2024 with a lot of promise as Kapil now had more freedom with his sketches. The first episode started with Ranbir Kapoor, along with his mother Neetu and sister Riddhima, and attracted many viewers. According to Netflix data, the show had 2.5 million views, with 2.4 million hours watched. The number of views has nothing to do with the number of viewers. According to Netflix, views are calculated “by total hours watched divided by running time.” During this season, the show remained in the top 10 non-English programs worldwide for five weeks. During the second week, the show had 2.5 million views with 4.6 million hours watched. In the third week, the show had 1.7 million views with 4.1 million hours watched. In week four, the show had 1.2 million views with 3.9 million hours watched. It last appeared on this list in week 6 with 1 million views and 5.4 million hours watched. This season had 13 episodes. “Hours watched” continued to increase as more episodes dropped, as Netflix calculates this as the cumulative hours spent on the show, and not specifically on an episode.
The second season had a weaker opening with Alia Bhatt and the Jigra team that appears in the premiere episode. The episode had 1.2 million views with 1.4 million hours watched. Throughout this season, the show remained in the top 10 non-English programs worldwide for four weeks. In the second week, the show had 1.8 million views and 4.1 million hours watched. In the third week, views fell to 1.3 million and hours watched were 4.4 million. And in the fourth week, the show had 900,000 views with 4.2 million hours watched. This season had 13 episodes.
The third season performed even worse, as the show remained in the top 10 global non-English language shows for only three weeks. The opening episode with Salman Khan. It accumulated 1.6 million views with 1.9 million hours watched. The second week saw 2 million views with 4.5 million hours viewed and the third week saw 1.2 million views with 3.7 million hours viewed. This season had 14 episodes.
The fourth season has had 4 episodes so far and has appeared on the global list of top 10 non-English language shows only once. After the second episode of the show, which featured the Indian women’s cricket team, the show was ranked 8th globally with 1.7 million views and 3.9 million hours watched. Before this season, the first 3-4 episodes of each season appeared on the global list, but this time, the show’s numbers have fallen drastically and it remains to be seen if Kapil’s show can be resurrected for the rest of the season and return to the most watched Netflix shows worldwide.