The Crown Season 6 Premieres With Major Viewership Drop

The first part of The Crown's final season, Season 6, is now streaming on Netflix and while the four episodes deliver what might be the most anticipated element of the series — the tragic death of Princess Diana — it isn't delivering viewership, at least not compared to Season 5. According to Netflix, the first four episodes of Season 6 premiered with 36 million hours streamed, a number that is less than half of what Season 5, which had ten total episodes, debuted with a year ago. That season premiered with 107 million hours streamed.

While some of the viewership difference can be attributed to the disparity in number of episodes available — Season 5 does have more than double the episodes currently available for Season 6 — though one could argue that simply based on averages Season 6 is a little behind Season 5 for viewership. However, taking viewership numbers away entirely, Season 6 is thus far not quite measuring up to previous seasons of the fan-favorite series from a critical perspective, either. Season 6 has, at the time of this article's writing, a 55 percent Rotten score on Rotten Tomatoes compared to a 71 percent for Season 5.

What Is The Crown Season 6 About?

The final season of The Crown, which will be divided into two parts, is set to cover the time period between 1997 and some major events, including the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, the premiership of Tony Blaire, and the early relationship of Prince William and Kate Middleton. "The final chapter begins November 16th. Inspired by real events, this fictional dramatisation tells the story of Queen Elizabeth II and the political and personal events that shaped her reign. Seasons 1-5 now streaming, only on Netflix," the streaming site shared with the release of the trailer.

The Queen's Real-Life Death Changed The Crown's Ending

The real-life death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022 impacted the series' end. Series creator Peter Morgan told Variety that the Queen's death was something that he had to address in the finale — though he didn't explain quite how the series would accomplish that.

"We'd all been through the experience of the funeral," Morgan said. "So, because of how deeply everybody will have felt that, I had to try and find a way in which the final episode dealt with the character's death, even though she hadn't died yet."

Morgan also explained that he did at one point consider making the Queen's death the end of the series but decided to conclude the series in 2005 to keep things "historical".

"It was the cutoff to keep it historical, not journalistic," he said. "I think by stopping almost 20 years before the present day, it's dignified."

The first four episode of Season 6 of The Crown are now streaming on Netflix.