Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 doesn’t appear to be off to the best start.
According to data from Samba TV, 902,000 U.S. households tuned in for the premiere episode within four days of its debut, which is down quite significantly from the first season.
In fact, it’s half the audience that the first episode of Season 1 drew in less time. Samba says that, within three days of viewing, 1.8M U.S. households had watched the first episode.
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Samba TV doesn’t measure mobile, however, their sample includes a panel of 3 million terrestrial TVs, weighted to the U.S. Census. By contrast, Samba TV’s panel is nearly 100x larger than Nielsen’s household footprint of 45K homes.
Therefore, Samba’s data doesn’t tell the whole viewing story, though it does give a pretty good picture of the episode’s performance — and it indicates a steep drop in interest season-over-season.
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So far, Amazon hasn’t released any data of its own on Season 2’s performance. But, the streamer also opted not to give away many numbers for the first season either. The streamer did report that Rings of Power delivered Amazon’s biggest premiere viewership ever at the time. It appears Season 1 might still hold that title, despite some heavy hitting debuts since then, like Fallout and the last few seasons of The Boys.
Season 1 of Rings of Power also reigned over the Nielsen streaming charts when it debuted, racking up 1.25B minutes viewed in its first week. Nielsen’s reporting is about a month delayed, so data for Season 2 won’t be available until later in September. Despite the sharp decline that Samba has indicated, expect to still see the series appear on the Nielsen charts.
Since Nielsen doesn’t separate titles by season, any Season 1 viewing audiences did in anticipation of the next installment will likely boost the title to a strong enough performance that it can land on the chart.
Rings of Power takes place thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” and The Lord of the Rings books with an ensemble cast of familiar faces mixed with new characters. Set in the not-for-long peaceful Second Age of Middle Earth, the show marks a first-time venture into the adaptation of Tolkein’s history of the fabled period. Villain Sauron (Charlie Vickers) will be on the rise in Season 2.
3rd age more suited to audiences 1st and 2nd ages and ring age too difficult for average viewers
It’s literally the best show, critics with so-called “taste” don’t know what they are talking about from their one bedroom studios and Bezos mansions !
Agreed, it is the best show on television, but it is the victim of haters and fanboy bots.
Sorry to be the one to tell you, kiddo, but a show’s audience wouldn’t drop by HALF if it was the “best show on television,” nor would it be getting such lousy reviews. Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, The Sopranos, Mad Men, and many more never had that problem (not to mention having the reviews to back up their esteemed place in television history). It’s embarrassing to watch you try to paint it as a victim when it’s simply a bad show.
Umm, you do realize that the audience dropped drastically because it’s a terrible show, right? Trying to play the victim of imagined reasons for its decline isn’t going to get you anywhere. Like Timothy said, make it make sense.
Right… which explains why half the audience bailed after the awful first season (and why more will jump ship as it proceeds). Make it make sense.
Whereas I have seen better shows, overall I like it a lot more than the LOTR films and Hobbit films.
Seems more nuanced and adult rather than “bad people bad, good people good”
Entertaining I think. But it’s not like Peter Jackson’s take as depicted in his lord of the rings and hobbit trilogies. I wish he had a hand this one. It would help if they had episode 4 following after episode 3.
The Tolkien Estate wanted nothing to do with Peter Jackson and his team. They’ve always been jealous of him.
Simon Tolkien gave Jackson a strong backhanded compliment by saying he was happy to take script notes, but to avoid treading into the screenwriting quality of Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy. PJ didn’t respond.
you forgot you /s tag
You like meandering stories stuffed with filler better than the far superior Jackson films? A very weird & unique take.
Jackson’s adaptation of LotR was outstanding, but telling the story of The Hobbit even with the Sauron canon subplot and taking more than 4 hours to do it was absurd amounts of padding. Desolation only adapts 5 chapters of the book! The writing in The Hobbit is a serious step down from the film trilogy.
Tolkien was onhand when the BBC created the full cast audio dramatisation back in ’68. Nothing added, nothing taken away, total run time 2 and a half hours. Jackson? 6 hours! As for RoP, relegate John and Patrick to Executive Producers with reduced salaries and bring on someone who can write, like Tom Stoppard.
What…….a……..shock
Bad show don’t watch it
So if Prime were satisfied with a 37% completion rate in the US and 55% internationally, where does that leave season 3? Either Prime drop the budget and render the CGI at 2K resolution, or cancel the series entirely,which will be a stain on Amazon Prime for years…
No need to worry about that. Half the audience didn’t come back, and it will only decline from there.