Osha Aniseya (Amandla Stenberg) in Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, season one, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

Data from Nielsen reveals that The Acolyte’s finale viewership was 41% worse than Ahsoka’s finale and over 50% less than Andor’s finale.

(L-R): Osha Aniseya (Amandla Stenberg) and the Stranger in Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, season one, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

Nielsen reported that The Acolyte’s viewership for the show’s finale only hit 335 million minutes watched when it debuted on July 16th. The show placed 10th on Nielsen’s Original chart behind The Boys, Cobra Kai, Love Island, Vikings: Valhalla, The Bear, Homicide: Los Angeles, Evil, Receiver, and Bridgerton.

Nielsen Top 10 Original Streaming Data for the week of July 15-21, 2024

Of note, the show’s two episode premiere had 488 million minutes watched according to Nielsen. That means that total minutes watched between the two-episode premiere and the season finale declined by over 30%.

And remember, Nielsen does not just factor in individuals who watched the finale, it factors in all episodes watched for the entire week. That means it factors in individuals who binge watch the entire season. So, even with individuals binging the entire eight episodes the show still had less viewership than the two-episode premiere. One can only conclude that the show saw people rapidly abandon this show after watching the first or second episode.

Nielsen Top 10 Original Streaming Data for the week of June 3-9, 2024

In fact, other data points to this being the case. The show fell off Nielsen’s charts in its third week when the fourth episode titled “Day” debuted.

As can be seen below, The Acolyte’s viewership for the week of June 17-23, 2024 was below 298 million minutes watched, which is the minutes watched for 10th ranked King of Collectibles: The Goldin Touch.

Nielsen Top 10 Original Streaming Data for the week of June 17-23, 2024

When comparing the show to more recent Star Wars releases, one can see just how poorly this show performed. As noted by X user NowItsKnown, the show’s finale performed worse than every single live-action Star Wars show released on Disney+ before it including Ahsoka, Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Book of Boba Fett, and The Mandalorian.

Ahsoka’s finale back in October 2023 saw its viewership hit 575 million minutes watched. The Acolyte’s finale viewership is 41% less than Ahsoka’s.

Similarly, Andor’s finale brought in 674 million minutes watched. The Acolyte’s viewership is over 50% less than Andor’s.

 

it gets even worse when you compare it to Obi-Wan Kenobi and The Book of Boba Fett. Obi-Wan Kenobi had 860 million minutes watched for the week of its finale. The Acolyte’s viewership is over 60% less than Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Similarly, The Book of Boba Fett’s viewership had 885 million minutes watched. The Acolyte was over 62% less than The Book of Boba Fett.

The Mandalorian Season 3 had 1.012 billion minutes watched. The Acolyte performed 66% worse than it.

(L-R): Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and Princess Leia Organa (Vivien Lyra Blair) in Lucasfilm’s OBI-WAN KENOBI, exclusively on Disney+. © 2022 Lucasfilm Ltd. & ™. All Rights Reserved.

As pointed out by NowItsKnown, these piss poor viewership numbers for The Acolyte explain why showrunner Leslye Headland was begging people to watch the show and take part in social media campaigns in order to get a second season greenlit.

NowItsKnown wrote on X, “The Acolyte’s (EP8) finale makes the charts and also explains why its showrunner resorted to begging.”

 

Headland did indeed beg following the release of the finale. She was asked by Collider, “Shifting gears, one of the most popular questions that I got to ask you from Twitter was: What do fans need to do to ensure that we get a Season 2?”

She responded, “Truly, any online support and love you can send the show. It’s a little tricky because of the way that the internet works, but if you enjoyed the show and you want to see more of the story, any support that you can give the show on social media platforms would be super helpful.”

She continued, “Sending love to the cast, too. You’ve seen what Hayden [Christensen] went through. He’s getting the love now, but give the love now if you enjoyed the performances. Even if you were kind of like whatever on the show, if you enjoyed the performances, get on their social media, let them know that you love them, or that you support them or that the performances were great.”

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – MAY 23: (L-R) Leslye Headland and Dave Filoni, Chief Creative Officer, Lucasfilm attend the launch event for Lucasfilm’s new Star Wars series The Acolyte at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California on May 23, 2024. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney)

From there Headland stated, “Encourage your friends to watch the show. A lot of my work has been word of mouth. We were talking about the review bombing, so just telling people don’t pay attention to the IMDb score.”

She then stated, “If you enjoyed it, tell people. It kind of seems that it’s sort of basic, but I think what’s interesting is that, nowadays, if you like a show, you’re very rarely going to go online and be like, ‘I liked this show!’”

Osha Aniseya (Amandla Stenberg) in Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, season one, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

Lovitt then stated, “You just watch it and move on.”

Headland reiterated, “You watch it, you move on, maybe you mention it to somebody over dinner and be like, ‘Oh, I just binged this show. It was fun. Lee Jung-jae is an awesome actor.’ It usually comes up that way, as opposed to going online and saying, ‘I love this show.’ So, if you did love the show, then pivot and be appreciative…”

“By the way, I know this is already happening, even though I’m not online,” she added. “People have been sending me fun tweets and beautiful artwork, and all of the ship comments, and I’m absolutely loving it. I know it’s out there. But if you aren’t doing it, I would encourage you to do it and support the show. So, thank you.”

(L-R): The Stranger and Osha Aniseya (Amandla Stenberg) in Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, season one, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

In an interview with Nerdist, Headland indicated the show had not received a Season 2 greenlight. She was asked, “Do you know if you’re definitely getting a season two?”

She said, “No! [big laugh] I have no idea. Well, not that I have no idea. I would say there are conversations. And I don’t know when that will happen. I don’t know when that decision will be made.”

 

Mae Aniseya (Amandla Stenberg with Pip [Jack Parker (performed by)] in Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, season one, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

She also informed Entertainment Weekly at the end of June that she did not know if a second season would be greenlit. She said, “I’ll tell you my philosophy on first seasons. Something that I’ve noticed is first seasons will end on what should have been the break into act two. It feels like everyone’s really expecting to get a second season, and I don’t feel that’s a good idea.”

 

“I think you should put everything you can into the first season and give the audience a nice resolution that feels satisfying, but enough nods to mysteries that you would want to see a second season,” she explained. “So it’s a little bit of both. You don’t want to leave it so wrapped up that, like Obi-Wan or a standalone mini-series, that there’s no reason to watch a second season, but I think there’s enough stuff in the last few episodes that you would want to have answered.”

(Third from left): Mae Aniseya (Amandla Stenberg) in Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, season one, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

A rumor from WDW Pro also indicated that Lucasfilm has no plans to develop a second season of the show.

 

He detailed, “What I am told by a source who has been correct in the past regarding Lucasfilm with very high specificity of correctness aka go back, folks, and listen to us tell you that the Rey movie was going to be happening right before they announced it and that Daisy Ridley would walk across the stage of the Star Wars Celebration, right before it happened.”

Pro continued, “Said source tells me that Leslye Headland does not, as of right now, have a contract for a season two of The Acolyte. Said source tells me that following the finale of Season 1 and the results that may have been coming in weeks ahead — this decision may have been coming in weeks ahead of the finale — there are no current plans to develop a season two.”

(L-R): Director Leslye Headland and Lee Jung-jae on the set of Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

Next, he added, “That could change. Kathleen Kennedy can always make that decision as long as she has a contract, which we believe she has a contract up until October of this year. And it may be continued past that, but that’s when the current contact would end. But Kathleen Kennedy could go ahead and approve that, but as of right now we are told there are no plans, no movements, there is nothing in development for a season two of The Acolyte.”

“My source tells me that everything in Season 1 indicates that they did plan on doing a Season 2 especially with the way the show ends, but as of right now that continuation of the story seems to be on indefinite hold, indefinite pause,” he concluded.

(L-R): The Stranger and Osha Aniseya (Amandla Stenberg) in Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, season one, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

What do you make of these viewership numbers for The Acolyte?