Karen Quach | October 3, 2022
The Top Halloween Episodes in America
Jump to:
- The Most Searched TV Shows During Halloween in Each State
- The Most Popular Halloween Episodes in America
- Sink Your Fangs Into These Interesting Findings
- Methodology
Another spooky season is upon us, which means more Halloween episodes from your favorite shows. While The Simpsons Halloween specials, “Treehouse of Horror,” were easily accessible on Disney+ this year, none appeared in our top 15 Halloween episodes based on viewership. Instead, newer TV favorites like Stranger Things, Cobra Kai, and WandaVision found their way onto our list this year, full of holiday fear. This Halloween season is shaping up to be no different, whether you binge-watch on a streaming service or tune in to weekly episodic programming on your flat screen.
The not-so-scary people at USDish wanted to dig six feet deeper to find out which TV shows were searched the most during the Halloween season from each state. Maybe you’ll get costume ideas from Community or find snack inspiration from Friends. Either way, start unwrapping your candy and get ready for this treat of a list.
Dig into the Data
- There are no bones about it—Cobra Kai was searched in 20 states with an average viewership of 27.5 million people, topping our list as the most searched TV show during Halloween. While it isn’t a scary or horror TV show, its Halloween episode, “Esqueleto” from Season 1, draws inspiration from the original Karate Kid film with a specific skeleton costume that you can use to impress at your next Halloween party.
- Marvel’s first foray into the TV Disneyverse came in the form of WandaVision. Delaware was the only state that searched for the Marvel hit the most. Still, its Halloween episode “All-New Halloween Spooktacular” was the third-highest rated Halloween TV episode on our list, only surpassed by “Halloween” from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and “Epidemiology” from Community.
- For the kids in Stranger Things, it doesn’t get any stranger than Hawkins, Indiana. The Netflix original had three episodes from season 2 make it onto our list but was only searched the most in one state. While you may think the Hoosiers of Indiana searched the Emmy-award-winning thriller the most, it was actually the Utahns who couldn’t get enough of Eleven and the gang.
- While The Office had two highly-rated Halloween episodes (Season 2’s “Halloween” and Season 7’s “Costume Contest”) on our list, states didn’t search it enough to top any list. The same rang true for How I Met Your Mother and their Halloween special, “Canning Randy.” At least that doesn’t take away from how highly regarded these episodes were for their respective shows—maybe add them to your watch queue this Halloween season.
Methodology
We used the IMDb Keyword tool to gather our results and filtered with the keyword “Halloween.” Each episode had to be produced between 1990-2021, with over 1,500 votes on IMDb and a rating of 7.5 and higher. We learned the episode premiere viewership from Nielsen and then ranked them as the 15 most popular Halloween episodes based on viewership.
To find out each state’s most popular TV show during Halloween, we used Google Trends to gather which show was searched the most in each state between 10/01/2021-10/31/2021.
| State | TV Show |
|---|---|
| Alabama | Criminal Minds |
| Alaska | Friends |
| Florida | Friends |
| Arkansas | Friends |
| Arizona | Friends |
| California | Cobra Kai |
| Delaware | WandaVision |
| Georgia | Cobra Kai |
| Colorado | Friends |
| Connecticut | Cobra Kai |
| Hawaii | Cobra Kai |
| Idaho | Friends |
| Illinois | Cobra Kai |
| Indiana | Cobra Kai |
| Iowa | Cobra Kai |
| Kansas | Friends |
| Kentucky | Criminal Minds |
| Louisiana | Cobra Kai |
| Maine | Buffy the Vampire Slayer |
| Maryland | Cobra Kai |
| Massachusetts | Friends |
| Michigan | Friends |
| Minnesota | Friends |
| Mississippi | Criminal Minds |
| Missouri | Friends |
| Montana | Community |
| Nebraska | Criminal Minds |
| Nevada | Cobra Kai |
| New Hampshire | Cobra Kai |
| New Jersey | Cobra Kai |
| New Mexico | Cobra Kai |
| New York | Friends |
| North Carolina | Cobra Kai |
| North Dakota | Friends |
| Ohio | Cobra Kai |
| Oklahoma | Cobra Kai |
| Oregon | Buffy the Vampire Slayer |
| Pennsylvania | Cobra Kai |
| Rhode Island | Buffy the Vampire Slayer |
| South Carolina | Cobra Kai |
| South Dakota | Modern Family |
| Tennessee | Cobra Kai |
| Texas | Friends |
| Utah | Stranger Things |
| Vermont | Buffy the Vampire Slayer |
| Virginia | Cobra Kai |
| Washington | Buffy the Vampire Slayer |
| West Virginia | Criminal Minds |
| Wisconsin | Friends |
| Wyoming | Friends |
| District of Columbia | Buffy the Vampire Slayer |
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