Pre-emptive Season 2

[DojoToad]

Two questions:

• Is it normal for a show to announce a 2nd season before the 1st season premieres?  I think not, but am woefully uneducated in the industry - plus things may have changed in the last several years due to all the newer content producers out there.  There are no rules!
• Whether normal or not, why did they announce season 2 when they did?  I think it was because they knew they had a weak product for season 1 and were trying to build excitement to salvage their investment:
  • Don't worry, we have a plan and all will be explained...
  • It must be good - we're already filming the next season!

 

So what do you think - normal? and why?

[notpropaganda73]

I'd say it's not usually the done thing. But at the same time I wasn't all that surprised to hear the confirmation for S2 - I think moreso because of the investment Amazon had made and the excitement for S1, I sort of felt S2 was inevitable, especially as it's not really an effective self-contained story for 1 season where they could get away with saying they went as far as they intended with it or something of that nature. 

 

Personally I think the lack of an announcement around a S3 is more interesting. I don't think announcing a S3 would have any particular gain at the minute in terms of marketing and the rest, we're in the end cycle of the S1 push and announcing a S3 probably wouldn't have any real impact in terms of buzz. However I am curious whether they'll have already made a decision on S3 and what goes into that. 

 

As to their motivation about announcing S2, I think that's a pretty weak theory personally. Excitement was very high among fans for S1 and I would say that the reception was generally solid, not spectacular, up to episode 8. I don't think having announced S2 already made any of us feel any differently about what we got in S1? And if they truly thought the product was weak overall but were steaming ahead with S2 regardless, I think they would have had a different marketing push once the show was fully aired. 

[DojoToad]

2 hours ago, notpropaganda73 said:

As to their motivation about announcing S2, I think that's a pretty weak theory personally. Excitement was very high among fans for S1 and I would say that the reception was generally solid, not spectacular, up to episode 8. I don't think having announced S2 already made any of us feel any differently about what we got in S1? And if they truly thought the product was weak overall but were steaming ahead with S2 regardless, I think they would have had a different marketing push once the show was fully aired. 

If the excitement was very high for S1, then why throw out S2 is happening? I was super excited already - if my meter was already reading 1000, hearing about S2 only bumps it up to 1010.  Not a great difference.

 

Just thought of another possible reason - they were filming, so why let it leak out unofficially when they could get in front of it.  Not like they could keep it a secret.  Maybe there was no plan other than to beat the rumors.

[AdamA]

Witcher announced season two was greenlit a month before season one premiered. HBO publicly greenlit season two of His Dark Materials before season one premiered. Disney greenlit season two of What If? when the first season started, and I wanna say announced season two of Loki halfway through season one, not before. They greenlit season two of The Mandalorian before season one came out. Didn't Amazon already commit to five seasons of the LOTR prequel? I think the motivation for shows adapting multiple books or a continuing mytharc type story is they want to assure fans they're not going to just adapt the first part and then quit, so it's worth watching knowing you're likely to get invested.

[Lethira the second]

I would suggest they green lit season 2 before 1 was ready in order to keep production flowing.  Once that was agreed it's a pretty bold statement, 'we believe in this so much we've brought into season 2' that should keep the hype up.

[Terry05]

It seems to be something that is becoming much more common these days - even with established shows. It's Always Sunny was renewed up to season 17 after season 13 came out!

As for Amazon's motivations... only guessing but maybe cheaper to produce if they basically filmed back to back?

The issue now is at what stage do they either renew for season 3 (or multiple seasons), or announce a cancellation?

[JenniferL]

My guess is that they will announce season three closer to the release of season two. 

[fra85uk]

In this case, it seems to me a reasonable thing to do: in a world where show cancellations are becoming more and more common, it's sending a message "look you can commit to this show, we believe in it so much that we already greenlit season 2"

 

I don't think however that they will announce s3 before  the airing of s2 

In this case, i think they will wait until the Middle of S2 to make a decision

[Mailman]

Its a marketing tool that's becoming more popular.

 

Announcing new seasons especially before release lends a air of this is good and we know it (regardless of quality) and it also lets people who are new to the material know that its not going to be a waste of there time to get involved with the story and characters for little gain.

[Mailman]

2 hours ago, fra85uk said:

In this case, it seems to me a reasonable thing to do: in a world where show cancellations are becoming more and more common, it's sending a message "look you can commit to this show, we believe in it so much that we already greenlit season 2"

 

I don't think however that they will announce s3 before  the airing of s2 

In this case, i think they will wait until the Middle of S2 to make a decision

I think they might double down and go again with the announcement in a attempt to retrieve the end of the first season.

 

I can however see if the quality does not improve massively a abrupt end at the end of season 3 or possibly a abbreviated season 4 conclusion.

[king of nowhere]

7 hours ago, JenniferL said:

My guess is that they will announce season three closer to the release of season two. 

But is that feasible? If they want one season per year - they must, if they don't want the actors to get too old - then they must start production soon enogh. And if they start filming S3, there's no way it won't leak.

Conversely, if S2 airs and still nobody is working on S3, it would mean cancellation

[JenniferL]

Well, since as far as I know, they are still filming season two. So there’s no season three to leak yet. I agree, one season per calendar year seems ideal but I have only the vaguest idea of what goes into a tv show production schedule. 

[EmreY]

13 hours ago, AdamA said:

Didn't Amazon already commit to five seasons of the LOTR prequel?

 

?

 

2 hours ago, Mailman said:

I think they might double down and go again with the announcement in a attempt to retrieve the end of the first season.

 

I can however see if the quality does not improve massively a abrupt end at the end of season 3 or possibly a abbreviated season 4 conclusion.

 

I dunno.  Both 2 & 3 are likely to end with a bang.  I'm pretty sure if we get to 3, we'll get more.

[DojoToad]

I've seen some shows go too long and others killed off too early.  Be interesting to see what happens here.

[Jake Sykwalker]

I honestly think this was Amazon's attempt to create positive buzz for the show.  This is my opinion, but they probably test marketed the whole 8 episodes and got terrible feedback from audiences.  This is why the released the first 3 episodes at once.  To try and drive up the positive ratings and good will of the show.  It would then fuel an artificial wave they could ride to not lose money.  

 

If you look at the ratings sites this seems to hold true.  On Amazon, IMDB, and RT they have steadily been declining in ratings as people view the show.  The only reason they are above 7 in some areas (besides the TON of fake 5 and 10 star reviews) is they were flooded with people who watched the first couple of episodes and came away thinking the show was ok.  If you look at recent reviews the vast majority of them are negative and have meaningful feedback.  The positive reviews are 1 liners are are a dwindling percentage. 

 

Throw in an early announcement to renewing the show and it makes the positive buzz last longer. 

[Jake Sykwalker]

On 1/19/2022 at 7:25 AM, DojoToad said:

I've seen some shows go too long and others killed off too early.  Be interesting to see what happens here.

I'm still salty about only 1 season each of Babylon 5 Crusade and Firefly.

[SinisterDeath]

Split off topic comments to a different thread.

 

As a reminder, this topic is talking about why they announced season 2 so early. It is not about the ratings and how all the 1 and 5 stars are fake.

[DojoToad]

Doesn't seem like we're getting a lot of meaningful feedback for this topic.  Feel free to lock it up...