The second season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is airing now on Prime Video, and it's...alright. I won't say it's my favorite high fantasy TV show I've ever seen, but it's a fun pulpy ride in its best moments. Nothing wrong with that, right?
But recent reports have it that the show could be trouble. Last week, SambaTV reported that ratings for season 2 were significantly lower than for season 1 over the same stretch of time, which has led to some publications doom-saying about the show's future, with Joe saying that show is "likely to be cancelled." Prime Video is now pushing back by touting the show's numbers, saying that it's been watched by 40 million people around the world since the first three episodes of season 2 dropped just under two weeks ago. A fourth episode has also since been released.
With 40 million global viewers and counting, thank you to the fans for making The Rings of Power the #1 @primevideo show in the world. pic.twitter.com/LNEuBVqxyp
— The Lord of the Rings on Prime (@TheRingsofPower) September 10, 2024
“We’ve seen an impressive amount of our Rings of Power customers coming from outside of the U.S., which is a testament to the show’s resonance with global audiences and the remarkable growth of Prime Video customers worldwide,” a memo obtained by Deadline read. That said, as Deadline points out, back when the first season was airing, Amazon bragged that 25 million people had watched the show within its first day of availability. That first season likely hit that 40 million mark faster than this one.
So while Amazon isn't giving us exact numbers — to get a better idea, we'll probably have to wait for Nielsen to release its ratings, but there's about a month's worth of delay on those — it does seem likely that The Rings of Power season 2 is being watched less than season 1. Still, 40 million is still a good number, and there are some extenuating circumstances worth considering. One is that The Rings of Power has been off the air for two years, so of course it's going to take a minute for people to climb back on board. It's pretty common for the second seasons of shows to experience a bit of a dropoff. Deadline points out that the second season of House of the Dragon, another high fantasy spectacular, got lower ratings than the first when it premiered, but recovered by the end. That could happen to The Rings of Power as well.
As for cancelation worries, I think those are overblown, at least for the moment. Amazon has invested a lot of money into this series and it's said to have a five-season plan. When we interviewed star Cynthia Addai-Robinson (Míriel), she couldn't tell us anything solid about season 3, but Morfydd Clark (Galadriel) told NME that, "At some point, season three will be happening."
For now, new episodes of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power air Thursday on Prime Video.
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