Not long after The Acolyte finished its first season, it was revealed that it would not be renewed for a second season, with insufficient ratings cited as the reason why. But some new numbers shed a bit more light on that situation, suggesting that the show perhaps did better than initially believed.
Deadline recently ran an article breaking down some ratings data from Luminate, analyzing ratings for streaming platforms and shows. This kind of data is extremely hard to come by, as studios are generally quite protective of the exact numbers for their shows, so all of this is rather inexact. However, Luminate’s numbers seem to be reputable enough in the industry to at least be worth paying attention to. According to their data, some of the biggest franchises in Hollywood underperformed in the streaming realm last year, including Marvel, Star Wars, and The Lord of the Rings. While all were considered to have underperformed, it is nonetheless clear that established franchises still dominate.
On Disney+, the most-viewed series in 2024 was Percy Jackson and the Olympians, with over 3 billion minutes. In second place? The Acolyte, with 2.7 billion minutes.
So yes, on the one hand, Star Wars – like these other franchises – underperformed compared to expectations and previous shows. But on the other hand, The Acolyte still managed to be one of Disney+’s top shows last year. That’s not exactly the impression you would get from the way people talk about the series. It appears to have still performed admirably.
Instead of viewing the show’s cancellation as being solely a ratings decision, there are likely three complicating factors. First, industry-wide streaming data was down, casting the long-term future of the streaming craze into increasing question. It’s entirely possible that studios will start being a bit more selective on what they green-light, and that especially makes sense when there’s a transition at CEO like there has been at Disney. Second, though the overall numbers for the show seem respectable, it did experience a drop-off as the season went on, meaning people started it but didn’t always finish it. That’s always the case with shows, but The Acolyte does seem to have been plagued by it. Third, and most importantly, the show came in over budget, with spending at an incredible $230 million – and a final product that, honestly, doesn’t exactly show it. A show made for much cheaper could justify getting a second season with the ratings The Acolyte got, but not a show that cost that much.
That’s the reason Alan Bergman, co-chairman of Disney Entertainment, gave a few months ago for the show not being renewed. “We were happy with our performance, but it wasn’t where we needed it to be given the cost structure of that title, quite frankly, to go and make a season two,” Bergman told Vulture. “So that’s the reason why we didn’t do that.”
Those comments fit in line with these numbers, with Bergman saying that they were happy with the numbers but the cost structure didn’t justify another season. As always, these things require some nuance – which is hard to come by in the social media age where everyone just rushes to a hot take. That’s been especially true, it seems, with Star Wars, where there’s a segment of people online devoted to criticizing everything the franchise does, which doesn’t lead anywhere helpful. So nuance is hard to find these days. It’s hard, for instance, to understand how a show could both perform ok by the numbers and still not justify another season, given the cost – even though both can be true.
Maybe the bigger question, then, given these numbers, is this: why didn’t Lucasfilm and Disney give it more time to explore a way to make a second season much cheaper? We don’t know what kind of conversations went on behind closed doors, but they didn’t exactly take too long to make a call on a second season – especially when a renewed show like Ahsoka has waited a stunning year and a half after the first season to even begin filming a second! Couldn’t they have given it a little bit more time to explore a way to make a second season cheaper? It’s hard to justify the price tag for season one, especially given how everything else turned out, but the characters and story and era all could use further exploration. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it had to end the series altogether.
Which is all to say that there’s still a lot more to process from The Acolyte, and I hope that Lucasfilm doesn’t learn the wrong lessons from it. But this data is an important part of the puzzle, and hopefully a correction to the hot takes online. It turns out this show did a bit better than many gave it credit for.
Star Wars Thoughts 