Report: ‘Ahsoka’ Season 2 Not “Locked Yet”
John F. Trent
|
A new report details that a second season of Dave Filoni’s Ahsoka is not “locked yet.”
(L-R): Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo), Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) and Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi) in Lucasfilm’s STAR WARS: AHSOKA, exclusively on Disney+. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
This new report comes from Anthony D”Alessandro at Deadline as part of his Ahsoka Season 1 Finale recap article.
He writes, “We hear that Ahsoka Season 2 is more of a reality in the conversation, though nothing is locked yet.”
(L-R): Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo), Huyang (David Tennant) and Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) in Lucasfilm’s STAR WARS: AHSOKA, exclusively on Disney+. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved
RELATED: Rumor: Hasbro Chose Not To Create ‘Ahsoka’ Toys Due To Lack Of Demand
This report comes amid Ahsoka’s floundering viewership ratings. The show’s two-episode premiere initially debuted on Nielsen’s Top 10 Overall chart in fifth spot with 829 million minutes viewed.
Nielsen “Overall” Streaming Ratings for Week of August 21 to August 27, 2023
However, by its second week, it had dropped off the Top 10 Overall Chart. Instead, it placed in fifth on the Top 10 Original chart with 487 million minutes viewed.
Nielsen “Original” Streaming Ratings for Week of August 28 to September 3, 2023
Now, in its third week, the viewership has declined again. The series has fallen to 7th on Nielsen’s Top 10 Original chart with only 459 million minutes viewed.
Nielsen “Original” Streaming Ratings for Week of September 4 to September 10, 2023
Analyst Valliant Renegade shared his thoughts about these week three numbers for Ahsoka writing on X, “Nielsen Updates seem to suggest Ahsoka ratings fell in week 3 (episode 4) over week 2 (episode 3). I am betting heavily on lots of rewatches in tandem with an overall shrinking audience footprint following the debut week (episodes 1 and 2) and from this point onward.”
He predicted, “Episodes 5-8 should see about a 20-30% bounce in minutes watched from this floor due simply to commensurately increased runtimes vs episodes 3 & 4.”
Nielsen Updates seem to suggest Ahsoka ratings fell in week 3 (episode 4) over week 2 (episode 3). I am betting heavily on lots of rewatches in tandem with an overall shrinking audience footprint following the debut week (episodes 1 and 2) and from this point onward. Episodes 5-8… pic.twitter.com/GGV7zHwx8f
— Valliant Renegade (@ValliantRenegad) October 5, 2023
Ahsoka’s viewership was in line with what Nielsen reported for Andor Season 1 when it debuted last year.
Andor’s premiere week, which included its first three episodes, drew 624 million minutes. That was good enough for 6th on Nielsen’s Top 10 Original Charts for the week.
Nielsen Original Streaming Ratings for September 19-25, 2022
In its second week, viewership declined to 485 million minutes when it premiered its fourth episode. As you can see above, Ahsoka was at 489 million minutes.
Despite tepid viewing figures for #Andor‘s 3 episode premier.
The show remained among Nielsen Top 10 Streaming Originals in its 2nd week.
Perhaps positive word of mouth is helping the series.@doomcock @wdwpro1 @ValliantRenegad @KinelRyan #DisneyPlus #StarWars pic.twitter.com/8olywNLL3V— MAC (@NowItsKnown) October 27, 2022
In its third week on the Nielsen charts, Andor’s viewership had declined to 356 million minutes, which placed it in 10th on the Original chart. Ahsoka, significantly outperformed Andor in its third week by over a 100 million minutes.
#SheHulk outperforms #Andor, not a good sign for #StarWars.
Explains the recent articles calling out Kathleen Kennedy by name.
The @StarWars brand is wrecked. #DisneyPlus @wdwpro1 @ValliantRenegad @doomcock @KinelRyan @BoundingComics @TheDirect @HAWTToys pic.twitter.com/h3sM5iJQKM— MAC (@NowItsKnown) November 3, 2022
Nevertheless, the downward decline is not a good sign for the series. Andor was originally planned to be a 5 season show. Gilroy told ComicBook.com back in May 2022, “Originally we thought ‘oh, maybe we’ll do five seasons’, but it’s just the scale of the show.”
He added, “I think when the show comes out everybody will forgive us for not doing that. The show is huge and it’s just physically impossible. So then we were like ‘what are we going to do?’ And then the answer turned out to be incredibly elegant and perfect because we knew where we wanted to go. Every now and then you get really lucky and the solution turned out to be really fortunate for us.”
The series was shrunk to just two seasons after it was reported by The Hollywood Reporter the first season had an estimated budget of $250 million.
(L-R): Imperial Officer (Jolyon Coy) with Stormtroopers and Young Cassian Andor (Lucas Bond) in Lucasfilm’s ANDOR, exclusively on Disney+. ©2022 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
Given viewership of Ahsoka is somewhat comparable to Andor it’s hard to imagine justifying the enormous costs, which estimates claim are at least upwards of $100 million.
What do you make of this new report?
More About:Television