‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’ Among Amazon’s Top 5 New Series Debuts Ever

EXCLUSIVE: Mr. & Mrs. Smith is off to a promising start at Amazon.

The eight-episode series debuted on February 2 to become the No. 1 series on Prime Video in more than 130 countries. It is now one of the Top 5 new series debuts ever for Amazon in terms of total viewers in the U.S.

Amazon, as is typical, remains tight-lipped about the exact viewership data. Next month, there will likely be more numbers available via Nielsen’s streaming charts.

It is also noteworthy that Amazon is specifically touting U.S. viewership, since that is the audience that Nielsen measures. In the past, the streamer has often opted to promote global viewership, which is much harder to quantify without proprietary data from the company itself.

Because of this, it’s expected that the series will make an appearance on those charts, especially because all eight episodes were released at once, which gives it an advantage in terms of viewing time in those first few weeks (Nielsen reports viewing in total minutes).

Mr. & Mrs. Smith stars Donald Glover and Maya Erskine as two lonely strangers land jobs working for a mysterious spy agency that offers them a glamorous life of espionage, wealth, world travel, and a dream brownstone in Manhattan. The catch? New identities in an arranged marriage as Mr. and Mrs. John and Jane Smith.

Now hitched, John and Jane navigate a high-risk mission every week while also facing a new relationship milestone. Their complex cover story becomes even more complicated when they catch real feelings for each other. What’s riskier: espionage or marriage?

The guest cast includes Alexander Skarsgård, Eiza González, Sarah Paulson, Sharon Horgan, Ron Perlman, Billy Campbell, Úrsula Corberó, Paul Dano, Michaela Coel, John Turturro, Parker Posey, Wagner Moura. 

The series was created by Francesca Sloane and Donald Glover. Francesca Sloane is also showrunner. Mr & Mrs. Smith is an Amazon MGM Studios and New Regency co-production. It is a reimagining of New Regency’s 2005 film with New Regency’s Yariv Milchan executive producing the series.