Rapid Insights: ‘Nautilus’ Makes a Strong Case for Reinventing IP Instead of Reviving It

Who’s been watching this new aquatic adventure show? 
We’re seeing an audience that leans toward men (55%) and is heavily older, both on linear AMC (90% aged 35+, with the largest demo 55+) and streaming AMC+ (78% aged 30+, with the largest demo 45+). This viewership matches other linear-based historical adventure epics like Vikings, Black Sails, Into the Badlands, The Last Kingdom, and The Librarians: The Next Chapter. (Notably, genre entrants that originate on streaming–Shōgun, Marco Polo–tend to land a bit younger overall.)

What’s the series’ biggest draw? 
Its odd couple pairing. At the heart of the show is the ‘opposites attract’ energy between the mercurial, secretive Nemo and the privileged, stubborn Humility Lucas, a woman forcibly taken aboard after the Nautilus collided with her ship. Though initially adversaries from very different backgrounds, the pair ultimately forges an Unlikely Friendship (145) as their adventures progress, and it’s this element that spurs the most dynamic character growth and propels all four of our key metrics: ratings, bingeability, social buzz, and longevity.

What else is pulling in viewers? 
The crew’s interactions. Nemo and his Nautilus companions (save Humility Lucas) start the show as prisoners of the East India Mercantile Company, sentenced to hard labor constructing the firm’s powerful new submarine. Through a carefully-planned uprising (Rebels, 122), they succeed in taking over the vessel and sail to freedom in the open seas, refashioning what was intended as a war machine into a ship of exploration and scientific discovery. Audiences are tuning in for this motley crew’s compelling Team Dynamics (112) as brothers-in-arms and now deep-water sailors, and to see them clash and cooperate as they take the Nautilus on new adventures. Interestingly, the series’ connection to the famous classic novel does not appear anywhere in its list of top drivers, possibly because nearly all of its characters and storylines were invented fresh for the show.

What’s keeping audiences watching? 
Adventure and suspense. The show’s exhilarating, swashbuckling sense of Outdoor Adventure (122) couples well with the heightened stakes of the crew’s Dangerous Mission (119): to avoid capture and death at the hands of the sinister East India Mercantile Company officers hot on their trail. This overall tone of excitement, helped along by the Action & Violence (119) marking each deep-sea peril and hero-to-villain confrontation, is keeping viewers on the edge of their seats.

What landed best in the show’s native UK and Australia? 
Humility and adventure but not the wider crew. Produced in Britain and filmed Down Under, Nautilus boasts the same overall top driver in these markets as it does in the US: the spark-filled Unlikely Friendship (125 AU; 120 UK) between Nemo and Humility Lucas. The show’s broader sense of Outdoor Adventure (121 AU; 119 UK) is also crucial in driving ratings, bingeability, and social buzz in both markets. However, the Team Dynamics (87 AU; 87 UK) and Rebel (102 AU; 102 UK) status of Nemo and his crewmates that are so important to American audiences are not nearly as interesting to viewers here, who instead seem to prefer a narrower story focus on the two ‘odd couple’ protagonists.

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