‘Lord Of The Rings: Rings Of Power’ Saw Steep Audience Decline For Season 2 Premiere, Samba TV Says

Katie Campione
·2-min read

Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 doesn’t appear to be off to the best start.

According to data from Samba TV, 902,000 U.S. households tuned in for the premiere episode within four days of its debut, which is down quite significantly from the first season.

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In fact, it’s half the audience that the first episode of Season 1 drew in less time. Samba says that, within three days of viewing, 1.8M U.S. households had watched the first episode.

Samba TV doesn’t measure mobile, however, their sample includes a panel of 3 million terrestrial TVs, weighted to the U.S. Census. By contrast, Samba TV’s panel is nearly 100x larger than Nielsen’s household footprint of 45K homes.

Therefore, Samba’s data doesn’t tell the whole viewing story, though it does give a pretty good picture of the episode’s performance — and it indicates a steep drop in interest season-over-season.

So far, Amazon hasn’t released any data of its own on Season 2’s performance. But, the streamer also opted not to give away many numbers for the first season either. The streamer did report that Rings of Power delivered Amazon’s biggest premiere viewership ever at the time. It appears Season 1 might still hold that title, despite some heavy hitting debuts since then, like Fallout and the last few seasons of The Boys.

Season 1 of Rings of Power also reigned over the Nielsen streaming charts when it debuted, racking up 1.25B minutes viewed in its first week. Nielsen’s reporting is about a month delayed, so data for Season 2 won’t be available until later in September. Despite the sharp decline that Samba has indicated, expect to still see the series appear on the Nielsen charts.

Since Nielsen doesn’t separate titles by season, any Season 1 viewing audiences did in anticipation of the next installment will likely boost the title to a strong enough performance that it can land on the chart.

Rings of Power takes place thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” and The Lord of the Rings books with an ensemble cast of familiar faces mixed with new characters. Set in the not-for-long peaceful Second Age of Middle Earth, the show marks a first-time venture into the adaptation of Tolkein’s history of the fabled period. Villain Sauron (Charlie Vickers) will be on the rise in Season 2.

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