Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power Had Major Drop Off in Viewers to Finish the Series

Hidden away in an extensive report covering the woes of Prime Video is some of the first ratings data made available for the streamer’s expensive Rings of Powers series. A Lord of the Rings adaptation that ended up as one of the most expensive shows ever filmed, The Rings of Power is said to have managed to retain just a third of its audience that started the season through to the first season finale.

The piece from The Hollywood Reporter paints the series as a failure, saying just 37-percent of the people who watched the show’s premiere stuck through to the end. According to Prime insiders, a “solid” but not breakout performance at the streamer is retaining at least 50-percent of the audience.

“This desire to paint the show as anything less than a success — it’s not reflective of any conversation I’m having internally,” Amazon Studios boss Jennifer Salke told the trade. “That’s a huge opportunity for us. The first season required a lot of setting up.” 

“I have never been one to say [to the creative community] ‘We need five action franchise shows and three workplace situation comedies.’ That’s the kiss of death,” she added. “You don’t reverse-engineer true creative vision. We are programming for over 250 million households across the entire globe. We would say we have a big, broad audience, and we are looking for content that entertains the four quadrants.”

Now, the show will soon have to compete with Warner Bros. Discovery, which snatched up film rights to the Lord of the Rings franchise.

“David made a promise, quote unquote, very early on to revitalize some of that iconic, tentpole IP and we’re starting to make progress,” WBD CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels previously said of the film’s development (via Variety). “It’s exciting to see how people are coming in and out and how the creative community is embracing this opportunity to work with us. That’s going to bear fruit, over time.”

Barring any major mishaps, the creators of The Rings of Power have planned out five seasons for the show, the second, of which, is now shooting principal photography.