Interviews and News Articles

[Wassup]

It was the most pirated tv show last week. 
https://deadline.com/2021/11/no-time-to-die-wheel-of-time-most-pirated-movies-november-15-21-1234879138/amp/

[DojoToad]

That probably says they got the marketing right then.  The question is will they be pirating this coming Friday?

[Vartija]

1 hour ago, DojoToad said:

That probably says they got the marketing right then.  The question is will they be pirating this coming Friday?

I've been really impressed by the marketing effort. Just last week I saw WoT billboards at the local shopping center. I've also seen pictures of billboards on city centers, bus stops etc. And this is in Finland, not exactly a giant market. Also, got to appreciate the fact that all the extras and background info on the Amazon Prime site is in Finnish (though personally I would prefer English since I read the books in English too). 

[DaddyFinn]

1 hour ago, Vartija said:

I've been really impressed by the marketing effort. Just last week I saw WoT billboards at the local shopping center. I've also seen pictures of billboards on city centers, bus stops etc. And this is in Finland, not exactly a giant market. Also, got to appreciate the fact that all the extras and background info on the Amazon Prime site is in Finnish (though personally I would prefer English since I read the books in English too). 

Southern Finland? You can change the Prime Video app to English and it changes the extras too. The Finnish translations have some questionable wordings and sentence structures but oh well..

 

Ps. Torille ?

Edited November 23, 2021 by DaddyFinn

[TheDreadReader]

We can firmly say that Wheel of Time was the most watched series premiere of the year and one of the Top 5 series launches of all time for Prime Video,” Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke told Deadline

 

 

https://deadline.com/2021/11/the-wheel-of-time-premiere-ratings-amazon-prime-video-mass-effect-lort-of-the-rings-jennifer-salke-qa-1234879517/

[Ryan al'Thor]

5 minutes ago, TheDreadReader said:

We can firmly say that Wheel of Time was the most watched series premiere of the year and one of the Top 5 series launches of all time for Prime Video,” Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke told Deadline

 

 

https://deadline.com/2021/11/the-wheel-of-time-premiere-ratings-amazon-prime-video-mass-effect-lort-of-the-rings-jennifer-salke-qa-1234879517/

Good news. If the episodes continue to improve and minimal stupid changes, should do well.

[flinn]

 Everyone who has had the opportunity to watch the 6 episodes have pretty much unanimously have praised ep 6. Once we reach there, and those who were willing to stick around to watch it, there will be a lot more positive buzz, IMO. That will be the make or break.

[Deadsy]

1 hour ago, flinn said:

 Everyone who has had the opportunity to watch the 6 episodes have pretty much unanimously have praised ep 6. Once we reach there, and those who were willing to stick around to watch it, there will be a lot more positive buzz, IMO. That will be the make or break.

 

 

I've heard good things about 4 and 5 compared to 1-3 also.

Edit: Couldn't remember exactly what Sanderson said so I looked it up again:

 

Quote

Episode 6 is my favorite, Episode 7 is really good. Episodes 1 and 2 are both really good too. There are no bad episodes in Season 1. 

 

It's interesting because I thought episode 3 was by far the best.

Edited November 24, 2021 by Deadsy

[Els]

Rosamund Pike said she was looking forward to fans seeing episode 6 as well on the Amazon Live interview she did the other day. I can't wait! I'm also really hoping that they give us more episodes in season 2 even if just 2 more episodes. 

[Pandemonium]

Fantastic news!  WOT most watched premiere on Amazon this year.  Trending to exceed expectations which were already high!  Now all we need are a few viral moments and memes to develop so this is mass popular culture and we can hopefully get all 8 seasons!

[JenniferL]

Huh. It’s almost like a couple people bitching on a single forum aren’t representative of millions of fans around the world. I had no idea! ??‍♀️
 

 

 

[TheMountain]

57 minutes ago, JenniferL said:

Huh. It’s almost like a couple people bitching on a single forum aren’t representative of millions of fans around the world. I had no idea! ??‍♀️
 

 

 

To be fair, millions of people also watched "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo." ? 

Edited November 24, 2021 by TheMountain

[Kudzu]

WoT is currently the most popular show on IMDb. I have no idea what that means.

[ArrylT]

4 minutes ago, Kudzu said:

WoT is currently the most popular show on IMDb. I have no idea what that means.

 

I would assume that means it is the show getting the most searches in their database?

[DaddyFinn]

8 hours ago, TheDreadReader said:

We can firmly say that Wheel of Time was the most watched series premiere of the year and one of the Top 5 series launches of all time for Prime Video,” Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke told Deadline

 

 

https://deadline.com/2021/11/the-wheel-of-time-premiere-ratings-amazon-prime-video-mass-effect-lort-of-the-rings-jennifer-salke-qa-1234879517/

From that article

 

Quote

Prime Video is among the SVOD platforms that do not disclose viewership data but Salke revealed that “there were tens and tens of millions of streams” for The Wheel Of Time in the first three days of its release, with the US, India, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany as the top countries.

Not too shabby

[Ralph]

23 minutes ago, DaddyFinn said:

From that article

 

Not too shabby

A lot of us on this website have watched it at least a few million times each though ?

[DaddyFinn]

Matt Hatch from The Dusty Wheel interviewed Marcus. There's also Daniel Greene, KritterXD and Riddhima talking about the episodes. I just started watching it so can't tell any details

 

[AusLeviathan]

9 hours ago, TheDreadReader said:

We can firmly say that Wheel of Time was the most watched series premiere of the year and one of the Top 5 series launches of all time for Prime Video,” Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke told Deadline

Now that's a PR line if I've ever heard one.

 

Most watched series premiere of the year - They haven't premiered much this year and what they have premiered hasn't blown up much so that's pretty meaningless.

 

Top 5 series launches - Given they've basically more than tripled their subscribers in the past 2 years this is not notable in the slightest, particularly since almost of their big hits were from over two years ago with they had less than a third of the subscribers they have now. I'm hoping they don't mean it was fifth because that would be fairly disappointing for the cost of the series.

Edited November 24, 2021 by AusLeviathan

[Pandemonium]

3 hours ago, AusLeviathan said:

Now that's a PR line if I've ever heard one.

 

Most watched series premiere of the year - They haven't premiered much this year and what they have premiered hasn't blown up much so that's pretty meaningless.

 

Top 5 series launches - Given they've basically more than tripled their subscribers in the past 2 years this is not notable in the slightest, particularly since almost of their big hits were from over two years ago with they had less than a third of the subscribers they have now. I'm hoping they don't mean it was fifth because that would be fairly disappointing for the cost of the series.

 

It says it received tens and tens of millions of streams and is trending to exceed their lofty expectations.  Of course the meaning  all these things can be streched.  The real truth will be if users keep watching all the episodes and the streams increase as the season progresses.  Hopefully there is a viral moment or 2 that eventually explodes this on social media.  Since we all know and love the books that is certainly possible.  

[AusLeviathan]

19 minutes ago, Pandemonium said:

It says it received tens and tens of millions of streams and is trending to exceed their lofty expectations.  Of course the meaning  all these things can be streched.

It's standard for streaming services to be vague about these things unless the news is very good, even those that do release figures often manipulate them to make things look good, e.g. when Netflix changed their methodology for determining views before The Witcher debuted so that it was impossible to properly compare how well it did to previous releases.

 

That's why I'm a little cynical, because they're specifically using "top 5 series launches" but Prime Video have had very few big hits and a lot of what they have considered big hits came from before 2020 when they had comparatively few subscribers.

 

With the money they put into this, the built in fan base and the massive increase in subscribers over the past two years, I'm kind of surprised that this isn't being announced as their most watched series premiere by a lot.

 

I mean what beat it? The Boys or Carnival Row when they had less than a third of the subscribers they have now? It's just kind of underwhelming news to me.

Edited November 24, 2021 by AusLeviathan

[Pandemonium]

27 minutes ago, AusLeviathan said:

It's standard for streaming services to be vague about these things unless the news is very good, even those that do release figures often manipulate them to make things look good, e.g. when Netflix changed their methodology for determining views before The Witcher debuted so that it was impossible to properly compare how well it did to previous releases.

 

That's why I'm a little cynical, because they're specifically using "top 5 series launches" but Prime Video have had very few big hits and a lot of what they have considered big hits came from before 2020 when they had comparatively few subscribers.

 

With the money they put into this, the built in fan base and the massive increase in subscribers over the past two years, I'm kind of surprised that this isn't being announced as their most watched series premiere by a lot.

 

I mean what beat it? The Boys or Carnival Row when they had less than a third of the subscribers they have now? It's just kind of underwhelming news to me.

 

Jack Ryan was their heavy hitter so far

  not sure of the others.  Hard to say.  Jack Ryan, the Boys.  Do other shows attract that audience size?

 

Edited November 24, 2021 by Pandemonium

[Elgee]

10 hours ago, JenniferL said:

Huh. It’s almost like a couple people bitching on a single forum aren’t representative of millions of fans around the world. I had no idea! ??‍♀️
 

 

 

 

Ahh. We must all speak as one?

[JenniferL]

It was a comment on the fans claiming that the show was a flop because they personally didn’t like it. 

[AusLeviathan]

35 minutes ago, Pandemonium said:

This article by Parrot analytica says WoT is outpacing the Witcher which is very good.

I don't know what Parrot Analytics is but this is an insane claim for them to make.

 

For perspective at one week after release The Witcher had 65,000 votes on IMDB and averaged an 8.8 score, the Wheel of Time coming up on a week since release has 19,800 votes and an average score of 7.4.

 

Now that's not a bad thing, The Witcher was a big release, it released all episodes at once and it was on a more popular streaming service, even if Netflix likely did inflate it's numbers by changing methodology but yeah there's no way Wheel of Time trended above The Witcher before or during its first week.

Edited November 24, 2021 by AusLeviathan

[notpropaganda73]

I honestly think it's a fool's game to try and analyse streaming numbers or rely on Amazon's announcements in that regard. The proof will be in being renewed for further seasons etc. Reliable numbers in terms of streaming are very hard to come by, a pretty good reviewer I would watch on youtube uses Nielsen to try and see trends in viewership but acknowledges that they aren't great either.