The revival of Malcolm in the Middle has turned out to be a welcome family reunion for viewers.
Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair, a four-episode update of the 2000-06 comedy, scored solid returns for its opening weekend on Hulu in the United States and Disney+ internationally. In fact, Disney says, the show had the best season premiere of any show on the two platforms so far this year.
Life’s Still Unfair drew 8.1 million views worldwide in its first three days (it premiered April 10), calculated as total viewing minutes divided by running time. That equates to more than 900 million minutes/15 million hours of watch time globally (the show’s running time clocks in at 112 minutes for the four episodes).
The show performed especially well in Latin America, racking up 3.6 million viewers on Disney+. That ranks second all time for a season premiere weekend on Disney+ in the region, behind only the first season of Loki in 2021.
The revival’s premiere also gave a boost to the original series: It had 18 million hours of viewing worldwide last week, Disney says, more than double the previous seven days.
Life’s Still Unfair centers on Hal (Bryan Cranston) and Lois’ (Jane Kaczmarek) efforts to bring the family back together to celebrate their 40th anniversary. While his siblings are on board, Malcolm (Frankie Muniz) is extremely reluctant to upend the life he’s built — including the teenage daughter (Keeley Karsten) his parents don’t know about — to spend even a little time around his family.
The series is produced by New Regency and 20th Television, which were also behind the original. Creator Linwood Boomer executive produces with Cranston, Tracy Katsky Boomer, Gail Berman, director Ken Kwapis and New Regency’s Arnon Milchan, Yariv Milchan and Natalie Lehmann. Jimmy Simons and Laura Delahaye are co-EPs.
