‘Veep’ Viewership Peaks Amid Kamala Harris’s Campaign

Veep has found itself back in the spotlight and gaining popularity on streaming platforms, especially after Kamala Harris’ campaign for the presidency picked up pace.

Recently, the first season of HBO’s vice presidential comedy, which is available on Max, experienced a significant surge in viewership. This spike occurred on Monday, July 22, following President Biden’s announcement that he would not be seeking re-election and his subsequent endorsement of Vice President Harris as the Democratic nominee. According to Luminate, the show’s first season reported a 353% increase in viewership, reaching 2.2 million minutes viewed. This marks a dramatic rise from the previous day’s 486,000 minutes on Sunday, July 21.

Fans and viewers on social media quickly noted obvious similarities between Veep and Harris’ political journey. Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ character, Selina Meyer, like Harris, served as a senator from a blue state and experienced an unsuccessful presidential run before becoming the vice-presidential nominee of the man who defeated her in the Democratic primary.

In the show, after winning the general election, Selina Meyer finds herself ascending to the presidency when President Hughes steps down. However, her tenure as president is marred by a series of dramatic and unusual events, ultimately resulting in her failure to win re-election after a tie-breaking decision in the Senate.

British journalist Emily Maitlis was one of the many social media users who pointed out this uncanny resemblance between Harris’ real-life events and the fictional storyline of Veep. On X, she wrote, “Let’s remind ourselves that #Veep has already written a fictional version of this script. Kamala *inherits* the actual presidency. Then runs. The electoral college is tied. The house vote is tied. Which means the Senate has to choose the tie-breaking candidate. And that ends up with … JD Vance as POTUS.”

Veep showrunner, Armando Iannucci, also shared his thoughts on the coincidental similarities, writing on X, “Don’t forget we made all that up, though.”

Interestingly, Veep is not the only entertainment entity experiencing a surge in streaming numbers due to the current political climate. Luminate recently reported that Hillbilly Elegy viewership skyrocketed by 1,180% after J.D. Vance, the author of the book upon which the movie is based, was announced as Donald Trump’s running mate. The Ron Howard-directed drama saw a massive increase, logging 19.2 million viewership minutes on Monday, July 15, compared to just 1.5 million minutes the previous day.

This renewed interest in politically-themed entertainment underscores how current events can profoundly influence the media we consume, drawing intriguing parallels between fiction and reality.

Source: Luminate