SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – JULY 25: (L-R) Showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay speak onstage during The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power SDCC Press Preview Event at Venue 808 on July 25, 2024 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Jerod Harris/Getty Images for Amazon MGM Studios)

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power showrunner J.D. Payne decided to attack fans of author J.R.R. Tolkien as fans have abandoned the show en masse.

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – JULY 25: (L-R) Showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay attend The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power SDCC Press Preview Event at Venue 808 on July 25, 2024 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Jerod Harris/Getty Images for Amazon MGM Studios)

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Payne said, “he Fellowship had to look to each other, and those who support it, and remember what it’s fighting for. And when we see that millions of people are watching this and responding so positively to it — that’s who we’re fighting for.”

He then added, “And those who watch every episode and [negatively] write about it on social media and make YouTube videos, we’re happy to have you guys, too. It wouldn’t be a journey through Middle-earth without some trolls along the way.”

Damrod the Hill-Troll; and Sam Hazeldine as Adar in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2024), Amazon MGM Studios

This is not out of character for Payne. Back in October 2022 following the conclusion of the show’s first season, Payne described critics of the show as “evil.”

He told The Hollywood Reporter, “The spirit of Tolkien is about disparate peoples who don’t trust one another and look different from one another finding common ground in friendship and accomplishing big things. That’s the spirit we’ve tried to inculcate into every single comma and period in the show.”

He then addressed critics, “That this aspiration would be offensive to people and enrage them … it’s very hard for us to understand. What are they protecting? I don’t see how people who are saying these things think that they’re fighting for good.”

“There’s a line in episode seven where Galadriel says every war is fought from without and within. Even if you’re fighting for something you think is good, if you do something worse in that fight, then you become evil. I don’t see how people who are saying these things think that they’re fighting for good. It’s patently evil,” he declared.

Morfydd Clark (Galadriel) in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022), Prime Video

Payne’s most recent comments come as viewers have abandoned the show en masse. Samba TV reported that the show lost over 50% of its viewers from the first season when just comparing the two premiere episodes.

The data tracking firm revealed back in 2022 that the show’s debut episode was watched by 1.8 million US households over four days.

At the beginning of this month, Samba TV revealed the Season 2 premiere was only watched by 902,000 households over five days.

It’s not just Samba TV either. Luminate also reported that the show only garnered 372.7 million minutes watched for the week of September 6th through September 12th.

That is 51% less than the show’s second week where it garnered 764.7 million minutes watched.  In its first week the show only garnered 63.2 million minutes watched albeit it was only available to watch for a single day in Luminate’s weekly window. Variety reported the show failed to chart in the top 10, but instead was 37th on Luminate’s chart in its first week.

Luminate’s Streaming Originals Data for Television for the week of September 6th through September 12th

For comparison to the first season, Nielsen reported that the debut week, where they released a two-episode premiere, brought in 1.253 billion minutes watched.

If you give The Rings of Power all of the first week plus all of the second week data from Luminate it comes to 827 million minutes. That’s a decline of 33%. And that does not even factor in the fact that the second season had a three-episode premiere.

Sam Hazeldine as Adar in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2024), Amazon MGM Studios

The total number of reviews per episode on IMDb has also significantly decreased. The Season 1 premiere had over 55,000 reviews. The Season 2 premiere only has over 13,000. That’s a whopping 76.3% decline.

And there’s not just a decline from the first season to the second season, but as noted by Luminate there’s already a huge decline just with the second season. The fourth episode of Season 2 only has over 8,900 reviews. That’s a 31% decline.

It gets even worse though if you look at the fifth episode. It only has 6,600 reviews after over a week. That’s a decline of 49.2% from just the Season 2 premiere.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 IMDb scores by individual episode

To highlight how terrible this, Luminate reported that The Acolyte garnered 380.5 million minutes in its second week. That is more than the 372.2 million minutes watched that Luminate reported The Rings of Power received in what is essentially its second week.

As noted by NowItsKnown on X, The Rings of Power’s fourth episode is 24 minutes longer than The Acolyte’s third episode. Thus The Rings of Power had less watch time despite having a longer episode. That means it’s very likely there are less people watching The Rings of Power than The Acolyte, which saw its second season get scrapped by Disney and Lucasfilm due to its low viewership.

What do you make of Payne’s attack on critics of the show while viewers are rapidly abandoning the show?