House of the Dragon and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power are two hugely expensive, high-profile fantasy TV shows airing at the same time, the former on HBO and HBO Max and the latter on Amazon Prime Video. They’re very different shows, and it may not be entirely fair to compare them, but it was always going to happen. Really, I sympathize with The Rings of Power showrunners Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne when they say they’re tired of hearing about it — I’m sure I would be too — but it’s inevitable. The narrative is just too juicy, no matter how different the shows are.
And according to one insider, executives at Amazon compare the two shows as well, and were particularly alarmed after House of the Dragon not only got strong ratings out of the gate, but actually got better ratings for its second episode a week later, which is unusual in the industry.
“It was never about the critics, it’s all about consumers,” the insider told The Hollywood Reporter. “All Jeff cares about is consumer obsession. If you look at the history of Amazon, every division lived and died based on that … Dragon matters because all of a sudden there is a benchmark. It is their closest comp to success. When they saw Dragon grew in its second episode and brought in 20 million viewers, they were shitting their pants.”
The Rings of Power producers care more about House of the Dragon than they admit
The Rings of Power debuted a couple weeks after House of the Dragon and also posted strong viewership ratings for its premiere episodes. In fact, early ratings for The Rings of Power were better than the ones for House of the Dragon…with the rather large caveat that what was being compared were streaming ratings specifically. While The Rings of Power is a streaming-only show, House of the Dragon is available to stream via HBO Max or to watch linearly on HBO, and this comparison only counted the HBO Max numbers.
Obviously, Amazon did not confirm whether they were “s***ting their pants” over House of the Dragon, although I’d definitely be down to listen in on a board meeting or two. Ratings have been good all around and both shows are renewed for future seasons.
That said, I wonder how things will look when both shows have finished their first seasons and we can look back on how they did compared to each other. We know that ratings for House of the Dragon have stayed strong and even grown over the course of the season, but it’s been harder to get accurate data for The Rings of Power.
House of the Dragon is definitely winning the war for buzz, and if you ask me, it’s definitely proved itself the more compelling show. But this is a marathon, not a sprint, and we have miles to go.
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