After a long pause by Ryan Murphy, Netflix users were treated to two new series, DAHMER and The Watcher in a short time. Will The Watcher season 2 be worth renewing for amassing hundreds of millions of viewing hours? Let’s find out.
Adapted from the 2018’s New York article “The Cut” by Reeves Wiedeman, The Watcher is a Netflix Original thriller mystery. It is created by Ian Brennan and Ryan Murphy.
What’s wrong with the series?
The 7-episode mini-series was released on 13 October 2022. The series captured a good start and achieved over 125 million hours in its first week. Then, with a 19% jump in the second week, the series achieved over 148 million hours. Despite a good start, the series had a drop of a whopping 54% in viewing hours and managed to pull in 67 million hours. In total, the series managed to collect over 340 million viewing hours.
The drop in viewing hours by more than 50% can be a bayonet reason for Netflix to not renew the series. The sudden drop in viewership is an alarming indication for the production house.
In the first week from 9 October – 16 October, the series pulled over 125 million watch hours ranking the series at no. 1. With the 19% growth, between 16 October – 23 October, the series pulled over 148 million watch hours maintaining its position on no. 1 overall rank, and no. 2 in the top 10. In the third week between 23 October – 30 October. The series witnessed a massive drop in watch hours and pulled over 67 million watch hours. The series fell to the no.2 rank overall and no. 3 in the top 10.
One reason for the fall in the viewership of The Watcher can be the release of the second series, DAHMER by Ryan Murphy himself. DAHMER has pulled over 934 Million hours to date, outperforming The Watcher by a massive 600 million hours and more.
Ryan Murphy is an executive producer for some projects for FX. He is in the last year of his $300 million deal with Netflix. And is busy with three TV series and a movie. Considering all these factors along with the drop in viewership the new season of The Watcher looks like the bottom of the list.
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Is there a need for The Watcher season 2?
The identity of the ‘The Watcher’ is not revealed at the end of the series. Considering the point that in real life too, the identity of The Watcher was never revealed. The series took a similar direction of keeping The Watcher a mystery.
The Brannock family is well and is obsessed with the house. The good closure to the series will be the revelation of the identity of The Watcher even though it’s not revealed in real life.
There may be a long debate about season 2 but it is good that the series ends after season 1. If the series can progress with a good story. Revelation of The watcher, then only season 2 is worth making.
