There’s been much talk in the last week about Star Wars: Andor. As the show nears the end of its third arc (of four) in Season 1, the show is facing a massive discrepency the few TV series have before. Andor has some of the biggest acclaim of any Star Wars TV show, with RT scores of 92% from critics, and 83% from audiences. Over on IMDB, the eight episodes of Andor now streaming on Disney+ (at the time of writing this) have an average score of 8.2; the first eight episodes of The Mandalorian Season 1 had an average score of 8.4.
And yet, the debate about Andor’s viewership and ratings is still making headlines. With some recent revisions by Parrot Analytics, it looks like while overall viewership numbers may not be the best, Andor is still doing solidly well:
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“Demand for Disney+’s Andor rose by 25% this week after its fourth episode premiered on September 28, Parrot Analytics writes. “The latest Star Wars live-action series has so far gathered a lot of interest among fans for its darker undertones. The surge in demand for the series this week brought it into the rankings in fifth place, with 33.9 times the average series demand.
Andor Is Prestige TV – Treat It That Way
The writing is all over those insights quoted above: Star Wars: Andor has all the acclaim of not just the best Star Wars TV programming out there (The Mandalorian), but of the best TV programming out there, period. The social media discourse on Andor includes consistent use of phrases like “Best show on TV right now,” like any of HBO, AMC, or Netflix’s award-winning favorites. It is, simply put, something we haven’t seen in the franchise before: actual Star Wars “Prestige TV.
It may be too late for Season 1, but Disney and Lucasfilm need to re-draw the marketing plan for Andor, going into Season 2 (which was confirmed early on). The studio needs to lean into the idea of Star Wars offering viewers prestige content, and make that the cornerstone of the promotional material: Star Wars for grownups. Let the cast and creators get deeper about all the societal themes of the show in featurettes and interviews and simply hammer home the message and perception that awards and accolades are the goal. Let The Mandalorian and fan-service events like Obi-Wan play for Twitter buzz and bigger viewerships through fan-service cameos – Andor can take Star Wars into whole new places.
Move Andor to a Prestige TV Slot
TV viewing is a highly programmable routine. Viewers expect to see certain kinds of content in certain kind of time slots, and Disney may have let scheduling routine get in the way of better distribution strategy.
Simply put: Andor isn’t the kind of show that viewers feel satisfied being staying up until a 3 am release time on a Wednesday to watch and react to. There aren’t enough twists and surprises that could fuel Twitter into the morning; Andor tends to spark deeper conversations about its socio-political metaphors, and deeper-cut Star Wars connections. In changing the perception and marketing of the show, Disney may also want to consider putting Andor in a spot that viewers associate with more high-minded prestige viewing. An early primetime Sunday slot would be an optimum place to try – maybe staking new claims for Friday or Saturday night prestige TV viewing would be good to try.
The primetime release window is key, though. Andor is a show that Star Wars fans would benefit from being able to watch with a larger social media discourse unfolding in real time, to help viewers focus-in on insights, meanings and connections they may not spot on their own. Airing the show for a primetime audience would definitely do that.
An Entire Star Wars Prestige Imprint
Rogue One and its Andor spnioff seem to suggest that there is indeed a different sort of Star Wars that has attracted a dedicated fanbase. It’s Star Wars with far less fantastical elements like space wizards and laser swords, and more about regular people facing the franchise’s deep-seeded themes of good, evil, and politics (yes, Star Wars – the story of violent rebellion against a fascist empire – has always been political).
Andor is just a first example of how even the most unlikely character from a Star Wars story (movie, TV, comic, video game) can become the vehicle for a fascinating Prestige TV saga. The franchise only has room to grow that concept across eras of the franchise (Skywalker Saga, High Republic, Old Republic)
For now, Andor releases new episodes in early hours of Wednesday mornings on Disney+.
