Marred with heavy criticism and controversies, The Acolyte finally ended its first season this past week. While fans have argued about whether the series managed to stick its landing, one statistic started a new debate regarding the show’s reception and its overall impact on the franchise.
According to reports, The Acolyte fell out of the Nielsen Top 10 ratings and never managed to recover, even during its finale. Jeremy Renner’s Mayor of Kingstown beat the series in terms of ratings for this week. Here is what fans had to say about The Acolyte‘s abysmal ratings and its effect on Star Wars.
The Acolyte Fell Out of Nielsen’s Top 10 Streaming Shows For Finale Week
The Acolyte Season 1 premiered on June 4, 2024 with its first two episodes, before wrapping up on July 16, 2024. The series debuted at number 7 on Nielsen’s Top 10 streaming shows during its premiere week. It climbed up to the number 6 spot the following week.
However, in its third week, the series fell out of the Nielsen Top 10 ratings and never recovered from the setback. In the following weeks, leading up to the finale, The Acolyte reportedly remained outside the Top 10.
On the other hand, Jeremy Renner‘s Mayor of Kingstown season 3 debuted around the same time and was ranked tenth in its first week. However, the series remained within the Top 10 until the most recent week.
Furthermore, The Acolyte had 488 million minutes streamed during its first week. In its third week, the tenth-ranked series had 298 million minutes streamed, meaning that The Acolyte‘s viewing numbers had dropped drastically below the 300-million-minute mark.
Fans took to Reddit to discuss the show’s abysmal performance on the Nielsen charts. “Don’t even recognize 90% of those other shows lol,” one user commented about the show’s streaming numbers. “tbh it’s amazing that even reached the top7,” another user wrote on the thread.
Fans Discuss the Longterm Impact of The Acolyte‘s Failure on Star Wars
In the same thread, fans also discussed the long-term impact of The Acolyte‘s poor streaming numbers. According to reports, the show’s opening week numbers were lower than the previous live-action Star Wars show Ahsoka.
One fan noted how the show’s poor ratings did not justify the $180 million budget that went into production. As a result, the fans argued that the series was bound to disappoint shareholders and investors because the series belonged to one of Disney’s biggest IPs.
This has to piss off Iger and major shareholders. Iger returning to Disney is all about making quality shows, which of course make money.
The fan made the above statement, adding that Iger might look to clean the house at Lucasfilm, especially in terms of creatives like Leslye Headland after The Acolyte‘s poor performance on the Nielsen rating charts.
Furthermore, the fact that other shows, such as Mayor of Kingstown and Evil beating The Acolyte on the charts were a major cause of concern considering the shows do not belong to an established IP. As a result, the shows have relatively less visibility, especially since they are released on Paramount+.
With a $180 million budget and the massive Star Wars fanbase behind it, The Acolyte should have given competition to Bridgerton and The Boys, which are the flagship shows for Netflix and Amazon Prime. Hence, The Acolyte‘s poor ratings mean Disney and Star Wars as a whole cannot compete with the best shows, justifying fans’ concern about the franchise’s future.
The Acolyte is streaming on Disney+.
