In the era of network television, viewers used to lose a lot of their value once they hit 50 when it came to entertainment programming as advertisers are targeting the adults 18-49 demographic.
Add to that the long-time stigma over shows with all-female leads, especially in a non-procedural setting, and that would explain why series about 50-year-old female friends have been very rare — a trend that has carried over to the streaming age.
Which is why it was surprising to see two such series, Peacock‘s Five Star Weekend, starring Jennifer Garner, Chloe Sevigny and Regina Hall, and Prime Video‘s Ride Or Die, starring Hannah Waddingham and Octavia Spencer, released last month just 6 days apart.
Even more surprising, both have been breakout hits as they don’t seem to have cannibalized their audience but expanded it, becoming the unlikely hot scripted shows of the summer — while also scoring with critics. (Ride Or Die has logged 97% on Rotten Tomatoes, Five Star Weekend 91%). As a result, both are considered a sure bet for Season 2 renewals, with Five Star Weekend, which debuted first, likely getting the nod first. (It started as a limited series but is set up to continue with a second installment.)
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Five Star Weekend launched on July 9 as the top Peacock scripted title of all time with over 1B minutes watched in its first week on the platform and 1.8B minutes to date; Ride Or Die has been No.1 globally on Prime Video since its July 15 debut.
Based on Erin Hinderbrand’s novel, Five Star Weekend is a story of grief and infidelity as a widow, Hollis (Garner), invites girlfriends from different stages of her life for a weekend, including one from childhood (Sevigny) and one college (Hall) who had been in her life for decades. Created by Tessa Coates, Ride or Die is a spy action comedy about an assassin, Judith (Waddingham) whose latest case inadvertently involves her best friend of more than 20 years, Debbie (Spencer), a politician’s wife.
At the heart, both shows are about long-time friendships. As Ride or Die‘s tagline puts it, “Some friendships are bulletproof.”
Fittingly, both series pay homage to two gold-standard female friendship titles. Five Star Weekend has a memorable joke about The Golden Girls, which also featured largely 50-something female characters, while Ride or Die recreates the famous Thelma & Louise final scene (sans the dying part.)
Five Star Weekend came in hot with 472K views in its first day to make Luminate’s Top 50 series list for July 3-9 at No. 13 in minutes watched despite having only one qualifying day in the window. The show exploded in its first full week to 4.28M U.S. views, per Luminate, and has remained solid, with 2.62M in Week 3 and 1.07M in Week 4.
Almost a month in, Five Star Weekend remains high on Peacock’s daily rankings, currently at No.3 and the only scripted entry in the Top 10.
Nielsen is behind in reporting, but Five Star Weekend is expected to be in the Top 5 for Streaming Original Series during its first two weeks of release despite Peacock having a smaller U.S. footprint than some of its more established competitors.
Prime Video’s big summer 2026 marketing push has been for its YA lineup, led by Off Campus and Legally Blonde prequel Elle. The streamer’s YA-themed Obsession Is In Session promo campaign has encompassed social media, a special fan event and clusters of billboards at big intersections, with the campaign’s trailer remaining front and center on the Prime Video landing page.
Meanwhile, Ride Or Die snuck up under the radar to immediately hit the No. 1 slot in the daily U.S. rankings on the platform where it has stayed since, eclipsing even big-budget film Masters of the Universe.
Similar to Five Star Weekend, the action comedy made Luminate’s weekly US rankings with just two days of release at No. 8 in minutes watched for July 10-16. Ride Or Die logged 927K views, twice as many as Elle drew for its first two days in the U.S. (477K) and almost four times Off Campus‘ 245K views back in May.
Ride Or Die zoomed to No.1 in U.S. minutes watched in its first full week on Luminate, No.2 behind Netflix’s half-hour comedy Hawk in views with 3.85M, also doubling Elle‘s haul (2.03M) and almost tripling Off Campus‘ tally (1.42M) over the comparable periods. In the most recent Week 3, Ride Or Die was No.2 to Netflix’s Ransom Canyon with 2.57M views compared to Elle’s 1.05M and Off Campus 1.4M over their third weeks.
Globally, Ride Or Die has been the No.1 most watched Prime Video original series for the past two weeks and expected to extend its streak to three weeks when the streamer releases its weekly rankings tomorrow. Elle held the No.1 slot for two weeks, Off Campus for five.
There had been precursors to Five Star Weekend and Ride Or Die‘s breakthrough. Grace and Frankie, which explores female friendship later in life, had a long, seven-season run on Netflix. Over the past year, the streamer’s The Four Seasons, which examines friendship and romance among a group of 50-somethings, and Apple TV’s Imperfect Women, a thriller that has the enduring friendship among women in their 40s at its core, have both done well.
Still, the dual breakout success of Ride Or Die and Five Star Weekend may be a game changer for how streamers approach older female audiences. In both shows, romance takes a back seat as a minor subplot, proving that WOCA (an acronym for women of a certain age that Ride Or Die fully embraces) are interested in more than love stories and relationship triangles. And that some “female shows” can attract men too, which has been the case with Ride Or Die, in particular.
So, with the TV business being inherently reactive, when Five Star Weekend and Ride Or Die return for second seasons, they may bring along a few friends — new series about long-lasting female friendships.
