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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Snarf Zagyg" data-source="post: 9067030" data-attributes="member: 7023840">I'm sure that this is what Jennifer Salke wants to say to Bezos (along with ... "You really really wanted the rights" and "But we outbid Netflix").But that's not the metric people use. You have to remember that not only is there a cost (the actual cost of the show- which was insane) but the opportunity cost (in other words, how much was spent promoting it, and how much precious Prime real estate and Amazon promotional effort was spent shoving it in people's faces ... and, of course, the opportunity cost of spending the money they spent on that show on something else). Not only was the cost immense, this had an insane opportunity cost- I can't remember a single show Prime pushed harder. And all the time it spent pushing this show was time it could have spent pushing something else. And they could have spent all of that money on a show with higher engagement.As for the numbers- first, it didn't crack the top 10 streaming shows for the year (per Nielsen ... obviously, there's a whole issue of internal metrics). More importantly, it wasn't even the most watched original show on Prime (that was The Boys, which naturally had a narrower audience since it was a Hard R).Then you have to look at how the show succeeded compared to peers. It wasn't considered a prestige show, garnering effectively bubkes in terms of awards. And the completion rate is fairly abysmal- 37% is not just low, it is well below the 50% standard of "cromulent." Which means that it wasn't compelling television that made people who watched it want to ... you know ... actually finish watching a show. That's ... that's not great, Bob.This isn't clickbait- this is the business side of Prime. The Rings of Power might not be a ... well, a Citadel level commercial and artistic flop, but it wasn't a success by any measure. If you parse the words coming from Salke carefully, you'll see it when she talks about how this show is a huge opportunity for Prime (it's already had one season ... that's not an opportunity) and how the first season was a lot of setup, and the second season will be ... dramatic. Yeah ...Personally, I thought the show was fine. I am one of the 37% who finished it. The person I was watching it with ... they tuned out after the first two episodes leaving me to complete it alone. I hope Prime keeps making LOTR shows- more fantasy is good. But they can't spend this type of money on shows that are neither fish nor fowl; not driving any discourse because of the high levels of quality (the "prestige" drivers) nor driving any high levels of engagement. Again, this is reportedly the most expensive series in history*- the only show that even comes close is Citadel- and it just isn't justifying the cost.*It is difficult to determine the exact cost, depending on how you break down the licensing fees and attribute it to the cost of the show (and per season) and the costs of external marketing, but reliable sources peg it between $58 and $89 million ... per episode. But it's safe to say that it is easily the most expensive single season of television in history.</blockquote>

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