Despite experiencing a decline in viewership in the early days of its release, Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 has performed well in terms of overall viewership. According to Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon MGM Studios, Season 2 has been watched by over 55 million viewers worldwide, placing the series among the top five original productions developed by the streamer.
Salke also revealed that Rings of Power has reached nearly 150 million viewers since its first episode premiered in September 2022. However, it is important to note that these numbers do not provide details on how many viewing minutes both seasons accumulated or how they performed in terms of viewer retention.
It is likely that the show will soon receive official confirmation from Amazon for its Season 3 renewal.
In a recent interview with Variety, Salke expressed her satisfaction with the success of Season 2. When asked whether Amazon’s original 50-episode commitment for the show would change, this is what she replied:
“I don’t think so. That commitment is never the thing that’s driving what we’re doing. We’ll continue to make the show as long as we see global customers loving it and watching it to the point where — it is a business. Obviously, we need a large amount of people showing up. And there are a large amount of people, so there’s no debate about whether or not the show will continue.”
Salke’s statement shows that Amazon MGM Studios still has great faith in J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay’s creation. However, it will be interesting to see how the studio proceeds with the upcoming episodes. So far, we’ve received 16 episodes from the first two seasons. Considering the studio’s 50-episode commitment, 34 episodes remain. Will the production house fit the remaining episodes into the next three seasons? Or could we see a sixth season, allowing each season to have eight episodes?
The studio’s 50-episode commitment makes sense, considering the number of storylines introduced in the first two seasons. While some criticism has been aimed at Seasons 1 and 2 for having too many subplots, it seems that Amazon is fully committed to fulfilling its original 50-episode plan, with the first two seasons serving as foundations for the upcoming ones.
Stream all episodes of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power on Prime Video. Stay tuned for more updates.
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