Amazon Chief On “Rings of Power” Viewership

Amazon
Amazon MGM Studios head Jennifer Salke has spoken some more about how the viewership for Prime Video’s lavish fantasy series “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” is going.

In a recent interview with Variety, Salke spoke about the reaction to the second season that saw an uptick in reviews and audience scores. In terms of numbers, she’s very happy with how it’s going:

“Over 70 million people at this point have engaged since Season 2 launched, 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… There’s well over 100 million viewers watching and engaging with the show. So I feel really good. I think we all do.”

The first season’s viewership reached around 150 million people in the past two years, and Salke hopes the second season will eventually approach that figure. Amazon originally had a 50-hour plan for the series and Salke confirms those plans haven’t changed at this point:

“[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.”

The comments follow reports last week the series was ‘on the verge’ of scoring a third season renewal. Showrunners JD Payne and Patrick McKay have reportedly already begun work on the third season even without that green light.