In the ever-crowded streaming landscape, two very different shows have found themselves in the spotlight—and in Luminate’s Weekly Streaming TV Top 10. One is a scrappy Peacock dramedy with bite. The other is a CBS juggernaut turned Paramount+ spinoff that’s all but guaranteed to shake up the fall TV season.
Both launched on September 4, and both are already showing signs of momentum strong enough to compete with Netflix’s heaviest hitters.
The Paper Turns Headlines Into a Hit
Peacock’s The Paper, a workplace satire about a struggling Miami newsroom, proved that sometimes smaller shows can make the loudest noise. NBCUniversal made a strategic last-minute decision to drop all 10 episodes at once instead of stretching them out weekly—and it worked.
The gamble paid off with 9.3M hours watched (561M+ minutes) during the week of September 5–11. That haul was enough to land The Paper in third place overall, nestled right behind Netflix’s teen powerhouse My Life with the Walter Boys Season 2, which earned 9.6M hours.
What makes the achievement even more impressive is its relatively short runtime. With each episode clocking in at around 25–30 minutes, the entire season runs no more than five hours. Viewers didn’t just sample it—they binged the whole thing. For Peacock, long struggling to carve out a cultural foothold, The Paper feels like the kind of buzzy win that can build word-of-mouth loyalty.
NCIS: Tony & Ziva Proves the Franchise Still Has Firepower
On the opposite end of the spectrum is NCIS: Tony & Ziva, the latest entry in a franchise that refuses to lose steam after more than two decades. Long before the premiere, the buzz was undeniable: the official trailer shattered the NCIS record with 93M views in its first week, a clear signal that fans were ready for the long-awaited reunion of Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo.
The numbers back up the anticipation. With only four episodes released during Luminate’s measurement window, the series still racked up 6.8M hours viewed, enough to secure the No. 7 spot.
That’s an impressive showing for a spinoff in its infancy, and it underscores just how enduring the NCIS brand remains. Viewers who once followed Tony and Ziva’s will-they-won’t-they romance on network TV are now streaming their globe-trotting adventures, bringing multigenerational audiences into Paramount+’s ecosystem.
The Competition: Familiar Faces Still on Top
Of course, nothing could topple Netflix’s reigning gothic juggernaut. Wednesday returned with Season 2 on September 3 and promptly crushed the competition with more than 30M hours viewed in a single week. Season 1 wasn’t far behind, landing in the Top 10 with another 4M hours, proof that new episodes drive fresh interest in older installments.
Elsewhere, Charlie Sheen’s two-part Netflix documentary aka Charlie Sheen made a splash with 4.6M hours in just two days, Love Con Revenge continued its streak, and The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3 kept its YA fanbase buzzing.
What It All Means
Together, The Paper and NCIS: Tony & Ziva highlight two paths to streaming success:
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The breakout original (The Paper) that surprises industry watchers with its binge-worthiness and fresh energy.
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The franchise extension (Tony & Ziva) that leverages built-in loyalty while still carving out new narrative ground.
With the fall TV season just heating up, the message is clear—whether you’re a scrappy satire about journalism or a global procedural powerhouse, there’s room to win in today’s streaming arena.
