LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – AUGUST 15: Jennifer Salke, Head of Amazon Studios attends “The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power” Los Angeles Red Carpet Premiere & Screening on August 15, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)

Amazon MGM Studios boss Jennifer Salke made an interestingly claim that “over 55 million people” engaged with The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2.

Morfydd Clark as Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2024), Amazon MGM Studios

In an interview with Variety, Salke was asked, “How have you found the reaction to Season 2?”

She replied, “Obviously very different marketing levels and all of that [to Season 1]. But that being said, over 55 million people at this point have engaged since Season 2 launched.”

New York, NY – 1/21/24 – Jennifer Salke (Head of Amazon MGM Studios) and Nicole Kidman attends the Expats Premiere Screening in New York. -After Party
-PICTURED: Jennifer Salke (Head of Amazon MGM Studios) and Nicole Kidman
-PHOTO by: Marion Curtis / StarPix for Amazon MGM Studios
-Location: MoMa

Of note, Salke does not claim that the show was viewed 55 million times. She claims 55 million people engaged with the show immediately after noting how Season 1 and Season 2 had different marketing levels.

What does engaging with the show actually mean? Does it mean anyone who was served an ad promoting The Rings of Power Season 2? Does it include people who never watched the show, but might have watched a YouTube video from Nerdrotic discussing how terrible the show is? Does it include page impressions on The Rings of Power’s IMDb page?

Morfydd Clark as Galadriel and Charlie Vickers as Sauron in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2024), Amazon MGM Studios

Nevertheless, Salke continued, “And if you look at the long-term trajectory, which is how this company looks at an asset like that, this is a long-term investment in that franchise.”

She then declared, “There’s well over 150 million viewers watching and engaging with the show. So I feel really good. I think we all do.”

That comment begs an even bigger question. If only 55 million people engaged with Season 2 then how are 150 million viewers watching and engaging with the show? Is Salke claiming that the show lost nearly 100 million people between Season 1 and Season 2?

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – DECEMBER 01: Mike Hopkins, Jennifer Salke, and Vernon Sanders attend the premiere of Amazon’s “Harlem” series at AMC Magic Johnson Harlem on December 01, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Hatnim Lee/WireImage)

It is well documented that the show saw a massive drop off in viewers in not only the first season, but also between the first season and the second season.

First, it was reported by Kim Masters at The Hollywood Reporter in 2023 that the first season saw 63% of individuals who watched part of the show’s premiere back in 2022 did not complete the show.

he wrote, “While Amazon, like other streamers, provides only limited data — and internally, it held information even more closely than usual on the series — sources confirm that The Rings of Power had a 37 percent domestic completion rate (customers who watched the entire series).”

For those outside the United States, the completion rate was higher. Masters shared, “Overseas, it reached 45 percent. (A 50 percent completion rate would be a solid but not spectacular result, according to insiders).”

Daniel Weyman as The Stranger in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022), Prime Video

Following the Season 2 premiere, it was revealed that the show lost nearly 50% of its viewers in the United States from the Season 1 premiere. Data tracking firm Samba TV reported the Season 2 premiere was only watched by 902,000 US households.

 

READ: So-Called “Tolkien Professor” Corey Olsen Makes Absurd Claim “That There’s No Such Thing Really As Canon In Tolkien” In Attempt To Defend ‘The Rings Of Power’

It had previously reported that the Season 1 premiere was watched by 1.8 million households. That’s a 49.8% decline.

 

Nielsen data also reflected a significant decline in the show’s viewership. As noted by X user NowItsKnown, the Season 2 premiere, which consisted of three episodes, only brought in 1.015 billion minutes watched.

In comparison the season one premiere, which consisted of two episodes, brought in 1.253 billion minutes. It’s nearly a 20% decline in total minutes watched.

However, if you factor in the run time of the episodes, the percentage decline looks very similar to Samba TV at 47%.

You get to this number by taking the first season’s two-episode premiere total runtime of 132 minutes and divide the total minutes watched of 1.253 billion by it. This gives you 9.4 million views.

If you make a similar calculation for Season 2, you take 1.015 and divide it by the total run time of 204. That gives you 4.9 million views. The decrease from 9.4 to 4.9 is 47%.

Morfydd Clark as Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2024), Amazon MGM Studios

Furthermore, Luminate data indicates the show has seen significant declines over the entirety of the second season. The company reported that the Season 2 premiere garnered 63.2 million in its first week. However,  it only tracked a single day given Rings of Power’s release date. In its second week, the firm reported it only garnered 764.7 million minutes watched.

By the third week it declined to 372.7 million minutes watched. That is 51% less than the 764.7 million of the second week.

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

It continued its decline in the next week with Luminate reporting it dropped another 7% to 346.4 million minutes watched.

Luminate’s Streaming Originals Data for Television for the week of September 13th through September 19th

For the week of September 20th to 26th it increased to 398.3 million minutes watched, the highest since the premiere.

Luminate’s Streaming Originals Data for Television for the week of September 20th through September 26, 2024

However, it dropped back down to 358.5 million minutes for the first full week of the penultimate episode and the first day of the finale.

Luminate’s Streaming Originals Data for Television for the week of September 27th through October 3, 2024

What do you make of Salke’s comments in comparison to the data from all three of these tracking companies?