Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power made history as the most expensive TV show ever produced, with a staggering budget of $60 million per episode.
The series was meant to span five planned seasons and had an estimated total cost of $1 billion. It debuted in 2022 amid a huge amount of anticipation from fans of the franchise.
However, despite the monumental investment, the show has faced significant criticism and a steep drop in viewership.
Set in imagined Second Age of Middle Earth, The Rings of Power explores a time when kingdoms were starting to form, the all-important rings were forged, and Sauron became a threat.
This epic drama transports audiences to locations like the elf capital Lindon and the island kingdom of Númenor, featuring both familiar and new characters in the Middle Earth universe.
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The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is the most expensive TV show ever made (Image: Prime Video)
However, its ambitious vision has not been without flaws. When Season 1 premiered in September 2022, it attracted 25 million viewers within 24 hours, making it the most-watched debut in Prime Video history.
Some reviews praised the show’s stunning visuals – but others criticised its script and deviations from Tolkien’s source material.
Season two debuted in the summer of 2024 due to a significant decline in viewership. According to analytics firm Luminate, the total minutes of the series that were watched dropped by 60 percent in comparison to season one.
Despite this, Amazon Studios remains committed to the series, with work on season three already underway.
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Despite the millions that went into making the series, viewership for season two tanked (Image: Prime Video)
Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke expressed optimism about the show’s future, citing its strong performance on Nielsen charts during its initial weeks.
She shared that TV bosses expect The Rings of Power season two to eventually catch up to the viewership of season one.
But not all critics share Salke’s confidence. A review from has highlighted several missteps that may have contributed to the decline in viewership.
Erik Kain complained: “It is unclear how Amazon can pick up the pieces at this point. The story and all its many flaws is too far gone to recover.”
He added: “There’s a sense throughout the show that it was trying to appeal to the most casual audiences—the vague ‘modern audience’ we hear so much about—with little regard for Tolkien’s most passionate fans.
“Creating an adaptation of Tolkien’s work without appealing to the built-in fanbase is a truly baffling decision, but we’ve seen the same strange trend across numerous IPs, from Star Wars to Marvel and beyond.
“The new audience doesn’t show up and the old audience checks out. Nobody wins.”