A relatively new rumor claims that viewers for the recently released The Falcon and The Winter Soldier Disney+ turned it off after the show featured Black Lives Matter (BLM) messaging.
This rumor comes from YouTuber Overlord DVD.
Overlord DVD claims that a source communicated to him that the tune out time stamp (TOTS) for the second episode of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier revealed viewers stopped watching the show before the episode ended.
As explained by Overlord DVD, TOTS “is logged on Disney+ whenever a viewer stops watching a particular movie or television episode. It’s useful to the bean counters at Disney+ to note when they lose a particular viewer because this can give them valuable data about how the show is doing and what that viewer thinks about it.”
He goes on to state, “This source claims that around 5 p.m. on Saturday across the board, the time out tune stamp numbers for the second episode of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier went crazy with people turning the show off in droves all at around the same part of the show within seconds of each other.”
Overlord DVD then quotes his source as to what the cause could be for all of these viewers tuning out at the same time. The source says, “My jaw hit the floor. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. All the turn out was at the cop scene where it clearly shows they were ready to pull their guns on a black guy who was arguing with a white guy. It’s clear that this was the message.”
The YouTuber then states, “So, in other words, Disney felt like sticking a black lives matter message smack dab in the middle of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier episode two, and what do you know, apparently fans who are sick to death of bad news and tragic headlines decided they had had enough and turned off the episode.”
Overlord DVD then claims according to his source that “over the course of Friday and Saturday, a full 79.9% of people that were tuning in, stopped watching at that point in the story.”
That number would apparently increase over the next few days as well. Overlord DVD states, “According to this source, over the next few days the TOTS average went up to 83.49% overall. That means 83.49% of viewers turned off the episode at almost exactly the same woke point.”
He adds, “This source claims there were also a lot of subsequent cancellations happening in real time.”
After the first episode of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, Disney claimed the show was its most watched series premiere ever on the streaming platform.
In a press release they stated, ” Disney+ Original series “The Falcon and The Winter Soldier” from Marvel Studios ranked as the most watched series premiere ever on Disney+ during its opening weekend, Friday, March 19 – Sunday, March 22, and the most watched title overall for the same time period on a global basis, including in Disney+ Hotstar markets.”
The company did not provide any actual viewership figures. However, SambaTV claimed the show was viewed by 1.7 million U.S. households, 274,000 U.K. households, and 79,000 German households.
For the second episode, SambaTV claimed the show was viewed by 1.3 million U.S. households and 253,000 U.K. households.
They have not provided any data on the third episode, which aired on April 2nd.
What do you make of this rumor from Overlord DVD? Do you think people en masse tuned out of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier following BLM messaging in the show?