Wikipedia:Top 25 Report/April 23 to 29, 2023

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (April 23 to 29, 2023)

Prepared with commentary by Igordebraga and TheJoebro64

⭠ Last week's report → Next week's report

An unfortunate number of deaths makes up a good chunk of this week's list, but otherwise, it's the usual suspects.

Rank	Article	Views	Notes/about
1	Jerry Springer	2,704,171	Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! The former mayor of Cincinnati turned icon of 'trash TV' with an eponymous series that was the standout point and laugh show and even inspired a Weird Al parody, Jerry Springer died at 79 of pancreatic cancer.
2	ChatGPT	2,150,517	People still interested in AI. I don't have much to say about it other than "it's bad" and I'm too lazy to write a full blurb. (And yes, as I wrote this, I realized I could ask ChatGPT to write me one. And no, I'm not going to.)
3	2023 NFL Draft	1,448,974	American football picked its newest college graduates to make a professional jump, led by the Carolina Panthers choosing Bryce Young.
4	Harry Belafonte	1,379,958	Death came at 96 to the musician responsible for popularizing calypso music with hits like "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)", "Jump in the Line (Shake, Senora)", and others that didn't appear in Beetlejuice, and with a prolific film career as well (a career shared by daughter Shari Belafonte).
5	Tucker Carlson	1,210,153	On Friday, April 21, the controversial Fox News host—who's attracted intense criticism and advertiser boycotts for his remarks on race and women, not to mention his promotion of January 6th conspiracy theories—signed off his talk show by saying, "we'll be back on Monday!" Well, that Monday morning, April 24, Fox fired him. Whether it was due to Fox's defamation settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, Carlson's internal criticism of Fox leadership, a pending lawsuit alleging a toxic work environment, or some combination of those three factors remains unclear.
6	Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan	1,013,196	The Bollywood action flick climbed from its position on this list last week as became one of the year's highest-grossing Hindi films so far.
7	Evil Dead Rise	1,001,882	Although Mario continues to dominate cinemas (at least until the release of #25), this low-budget addition to the Sam Raimi-created Evil Dead franchise had no problem recouping its budget, even without Bruce Campbell as Ash Williams.
8	Deaths in 2023	990,491	How 'bout unabashedly bawling your eyes out? How 'bout not equating death with stopping?
9	Gervonta Davis	868,455	The professional boxer defeated #14 in a fight on April 22.
10	Whitney Houston	800,963	Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody might not have earned entries here while in theaters or HBO Max, but once it got to Netflix's catalogue, an influx of viewers checked our article on the singer whose equally successful and tragic story was told in that film (where Whitney was played by Naomi Ackie).
11	Sofia Richie	769,401	Lionel Richie's youngest daughter, who (like adoptive sister Nicole) is mostly a media personality and model, married music executive Elliot Grainge.
12	The Super Mario Bros. Movie	767,049	The Nintendo adaptation became the first film of the year, and the first post-pandemic animated feature, to pass the $1 billion mark this weekend. It's a significant achievement, especially for a video game-based film—for context, the previous highest-grossing video game movie, 2016's Warcraft, managed only $439 million.
13	Len Goodman	745,727	This professional ballroom dancer, perhaps best known as the head judge on Strictly Come Dancing in the UK and Dancing with the Stars in the US, died on April 22 at the age of 78.
14	Ryan Garcia	717,771	Defeated by #9 in the aforementioned fight.
15	Keri Russell	697,307	This American actress, best known for Felicity, makes the list for her starring role in #21.
16	Wrexham A.F.C.	674,323	A Welsh football club that dates back to the 18th century but maybe only caught the headlines once Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney bought it in 2020, leading to a docuseries and the like. The investment is paying off as Wrexham won its first league title in 45 years and got promoted to the EFL League Two.
17	List of American films of 2023	602,454	Possibly buoyed by the runaway success of #12. Blockbuster season is about to start with #25, followed by every week having something like Fast X, The Little Mermaid, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.
18	Sudan	576,420	Makes the list due to #20.
19	John Mulaney	531,375	Netflix released John Mulaney: Baby J, the latest special of this comedian with plenty of claims to fame, like Saturday Night Live, voicing Spider-Ham in Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse (and the upcoming sequel mentioned above) and being married to Olivia Munn.
20	2023 Sudan conflict	475,389	An armed conflict began in Sudan on April 15 after months of rising tensions between the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese government. So far, the violence has claimed almost 600 lives.
21	The Diplomat	496,003	A Netflix series adapting the exciting, nerve-wracking, and page-turning source material of... diplomacy. Oh wait, it's not based on anything. A Netflix series with an original idea? Color me surprised.
22	Barry Humphries	474,571	The Australian comedian known for his absurdist humor and satirical characters died on April 22 at the age of 89.
23	Carol Burnett	469,559	NBC honored the 90th birthday of this actress and comedienne with the special Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love.
24	Janice Dickinson	453,125	A successful model that was among the contestants of the latest I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! before an injury forced her to quit early.
25	Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3	432,739	James Gunn's last Marvel Cinematic Universe contribution as he now spearheads the recovery of their Distinguished Competition is opening this week, a possible franchise 'make it or break it' point given how audience reception has been all over the place for the post-Avengers: Endgame releases.