Turns out Americans love horses, cowgirls, and Alberta.

Can you guess the biggest streamed television shows of the past year? Squid Games? Bridgerton? You?

While those series were highly talked about and held the spotlight throughout the year, they don’t come close to the actual leaders in total minutes watched. Nielsen, a research website, released a list of the most-watched TV shows and films last year, and sitting at number five is a show many Cochranites are familiar with.

Heartland racked up over 20 billion minutes streamed in the U.S.A in 2021.

The top five shows included 

  1.  'Criminal Minds' with over 33 billion minutes viewed.

  2. 'COCOMELON' with over 33 billion minutes viewed.

  3. 'Grey's Anatomy' with over 32 billion minutes viewed.

  4. 'NCIS' with over 29 billion minutes viewed.

  5. 'Heartland' with over 20 billion minutes viewed.

The Canadian-produced drama, shot in Cochrane’s backyard, easily surpassed the minutes viewed of the top streaming movies of the past year. Disney’s ‘Luca’, ‘Moana’ and ‘Raya and The Last Dragon’ all were beaten by Heartland.

‘Heartland’ first debuted on CBC in 2007. The series focuses on the Bartlett-Fleming family who owns a ranch named Heartland. The series also owns the record of being the longest-running one-hour scripted drama in Canadian TV history.