We are (probably) getting a Season 3

[Chivalry]

https://www.cbr.com/wheel-of-time-third-season/

 

Has anyone posted this? Apologies if that is the case, this is the first I've heard of this.

[Vambram]

1 hour ago, Chivalry said:

https://www.cbr.com/wheel-of-time-third-season/

 

Has anyone posted this? Apologies if that is the case, this is the first I've heard of this.

That is a new article and the very first time I've seen any kind of confirmation that the series is renewed for season 3. 

Thank you. 

[ArrylT]

11 hours ago, Chivalry said:

https://www.cbr.com/wheel-of-time-third-season/

 

Has anyone posted this? Apologies if that is the case, this is the first I've heard of this.

 

Adam Whitehead, who posts articles on DragonMount has just posted an article on The Wertzone, so perhaps we'll see one on DM soon as well.

 

https://thewertzone.blogspot.com/2022/02/wheel-of-time-renewed-for-third-season.html

 

Both articles are using this as part of their belief that S3 is a definite go:

 

https://deadline.com/2022/02/criminal-minds-revival-paramount-plus-1234926358/

 

"The Prime Video series, which films in Prague, has been picked up for two more seasons, and any potential Henney guest appearance on Criminal Minds would be subject to his commitment to Wheel Of Time and scheduling, sources said."

[JenniferL]

Unsurprised. Even hate watching counts as watching, y’all. 

[Pandemonium]

Wheel of time a huge hit.  The previous article said it was the most watched original show of 2021.  It beat out all the new Marvel shows, Star Wars shows, and the biggest Netflix new hits such as Squid Game and Arcane.  That said, season 1 had some major flaws.  I'm not sure they can fix all of these for season 2, especially if they only get 8 episodes.  But hopefully a couple more seasons can really make this show hit the same highs that the books hit.  Hopefully season 2 can make enough improvements that it grows the audience/   

 

Amazon has a huge base for TV shows, close to 175 million Prime users have used Prime Video now.  It is probably even closer to 200 million now.  Netflix has 214 million users.  Prime is rapidly growing, and wheel of time is the premier show until Lord of the Rings.  it's quite possible that Wheel of Time will end being the better show of the two.   https://qz.com/2003812/amazon-prime-has-almost-as-many-streaming-subscribers-as-netflix/

 

[Terry05]

But...but... the 7.2 imdb rating... how is this possible /s ???

[Andra]

7 hours ago, Pandemonium said:

Wheel of time a huge hit.  The previous article said it was the most watched original show of 2021.  It beat out all the new Marvel shows, Star Wars shows, and the biggest Netflix new hits such as Squid Game and Arcane. 

From what I read, it wasn't the most watched original show overall, just Amazon's most-watched original show.  The Nielsen ratings for streaming services showed several other providers with original shows with higher viewership.  The two most-similar examples were The Witcher and Hawkeye.  Both of which had more total viewing minutes.

The three-episode premiere was #1, but only for that week.  And only because it counts the minutes for all three episodes at the same time.

[EmreY]

If we get a thirs series, then we'll probably get all eight promised, unless the show management team are complete dunderheads.

 

Enter a fan of Mat... ? 

[TheMatCauthon]

7 hours ago, Terry05 said:

But...but... the 7.2 imdb rating... how is this possible /s ???

I'm going to reference some work someone did on Twitter:
If you look at the imdb ratings - particularly the 886 1* ratings with text attached, 255 of those 886 reviews mentioned racial diversity, woke, feminism, LGBTQ+ etc negatively. That’s 29% Here are some of the highlights…

Review titles:

- The Woke Of Time

- Diversity 

- Feminist fantasy

- Diversity is great but make it make sense

- Gynocentric diversity is killing all sci fi and fantasy

- And one titled simply “Feminism”

 

Review quotes:

- “why is appropriating white culture allowed in Hollywood”

- “not a lot of men in the show”

- “maybe I’ll revisit once I’ve become a snowflake gender neutral feminist”

- “like many many shows today casting mostly women like affirmative action shows”

- “avoid at all cost if you don’t believe in feminism and it’s violent war waged against men and boys”

- “The ultra diversity in this show is distracting, over the top and unrealistic”

 

And not offensive, but my favourite… “why call this the wheel of time when it has nothing to do with time or time travel”

 

"...there is some awful stuff in these reviews. There were a number of quotes too offensive for me to share. There were also a huge amount of reviews that used very disrespectful language around Robert Jordan, were rude about Harriet, and of course lots of abuse towards Rafe and the writing team. One user even wished Rafe a slow and painful death."

 

The vast majority of 1/10 reviews were left by book fans. Some of these were very upset that elements had been changed… that aren’t actually in the books.

 

Such as:

- There are no large rivers near EF

- Nynaeve having blonde hair

- Perrin’s family are all blacksmiths

- Someone who thought there were 10 books

- Some who think the EF5 are 14 in the books

- And someone who has been reading the books since 1987 #1980sWheelOfTime

 

Some reviewers were also angry about elements of the show… that weren’t in the show:

- That Rand’s mum was alive

- That the One Power is not different for men and women

- That the show wrote out linking

- That Lan and Moiraine had sex in the bath

 

- And that Min and Thom had been written out of the series completely.

 

All credit goes to @MatsPips for doing the deep dive into the reviews. But if you want to question the imdb rating, look no further.

[Andra]

43 minutes ago, EmreY said:

If we get a thirs series, then we'll probably get all eight promised, unless the show management team are complete dunderheads.

 

Enter a fan of Mat... ? 

These are not mutually exclusive points.

?

[TheMatCauthon]

2 hours ago, Andra said:

From what I read, it wasn't the most watched original show overall, just Amazon's most-watched original show.  The Nielsen ratings for streaming services showed several other providers with original shows with higher viewership.  The two most-similar examples were The Witcher and Hawkeye.  Both of which had more total viewing minutes.

The three-episode premiere was #1, but only for that week.  And only because it counts the minutes for all three episodes at the same time.

https://www.businessinsider.com/wheel-of-time-biggest-new-series-last-year-2022-2?r=US&IR=T#8-squid-game-netflix-3

This gives a good breakdown of viewership and "in demand" stats.

 

2 hours ago, Andra said:

It beat out all the new Marvel shows, Star Wars shows, and the biggest Netflix new hits such as Squid Game and Arcane.

Pandemonium is right here.

Edited February 7, 2022 by TheMatCauthon
SP

[Andra]

11 minutes ago, TheMatCauthon said:

https://www.businessinsider.com/wheel-of-time-biggest-new-series-last-year-2022-2?r=US&IR=T#8-squid-game-netflix-3

This gives a good breakdown of viewership and "in demand" stats.

 

Pandemonium is right here.

One point: that article is only comparing shows that premiered in 2021.

Hawkeye did, but The Witcher did not.  Neither did things like The Mandalorian.

 

And it's interesting, because Hawkeye had higher Nielsen streaming ratings than WOT, so I'm not sure how it's lower on that list.  

#CobraKai , #Encanto and #TheWitcher are This Weeks Nielsen Top 20 Streaming Chart *Updated 3rd February 2022* (spoilertv.com)

 

I guess the difference is that the BI article talks about some measure called "Audience Demand" (which it doesn't explain) as calculated by Parrot Analytics.  While the Nielsen streaming ratings are about actual minutes watched.  

 

Regardless what their metric actually measures, The Witcher outscored WOT - 47.9 to 43.2 "times average demand."  As well as getting higher Nielsen ratings.

 

---

None of this is to say it wasn't popular, or that Amazon thinks it did poorly.  Just that the popularity of streaming content is notoriously difficult to compare.  So it isn't surprising that different sources calculate it differently.

[TheMatCauthon]

It does state "biggest NEW Series" of 2021.

Neither The Mandalorian or The Witcher are new series. They are second seasons. There is a difference there. The Wheel of Time was the biggest Season 1 of 2021.

[Andra]

Just now, TheMatCauthon said:

It does state "biggest NEW Series" of 2021.

Neither The Mandalorian or The Witcher are new series. They are second seasons. There is a difference there. The Wheel of Time was the biggest Season 1 of 2021.

Yes, but the comment I was responding to just referred to "original shows."  Which is any show that is an original creation of the particular streaming service.  No matter how long it's been on.

As opposed to "acquired" content - like old TV shows or movies.

[TheMatCauthon]

The OP wording wasn't great, and should have specified that it was original new shows, as opposed to shows in general. 

[Andra]

24 minutes ago, TheMatCauthon said:

The OP wording wasn't great, and should have specified that it was original new shows, as opposed to shows in general. 

Or at least specify what "previous article" was being referred to.

[TheMatCauthon]

Agree 100%

[Cauthonfan4]

2 hours ago, Andra said:

And it's interesting, because Hawkeye had higher Nielsen streaming ratings than WOT, so I'm not sure how it's lower on that list

Because parrot doesn't analyze watching time. It only analyzes online engagement. Which means that even say....a bunch of upset fans creating a firestorm online at the show count as a positive thing for wheel of times online engagement, pushing them higher up parrot analytics.

 

Parrots basic tactics are "•any press is good press".

Edited February 7, 2022 by Cauthonfan4

[TheMatCauthon]

Rightly so - people have admitted to hate watching it week by week, and have even seen people say they will hatebinge Season 2...which still provides us with those lovely viewing minutes that we need!

Either way, until Amazon or Rafe confirm it, we are still waiting...just glad we have S2 in the bag

[DigificWriter]

Outlets like Deadline, Variety, Entertainment Weekly, and The Hollywood Reporter meticulously source-check the information they publish and do not move forward on reporting something unless they are fully confident in its veracity, and so Deadline letting it casually slip that WoT has already been renewed for a third season means that they're confident enough in the veracity of that information to post it publicly.

 

Official confirmation of a third season from Amazon would be better, but the track records of and meticulous vetting procedures employed by the four sites/publications I mentioned means that Deadline's casual mention of a third season for WoT is still a very promising development for fans of the property.

Edited February 7, 2022 by DigificWriter

[TheMatCauthon]

17 minutes ago, DigificWriter said:

Outlets like Deadline, Variety, Entertainment Weekly, and The Hollywood Reporter meticulously source-check the information they publish and do not move forward on reporting something unless they are fully confident in its veracity, and so Deadline letting it casually slip that WoT has already been renewed for a third season means that they're confident enough in the veracity of that information to post it publicly.

 

Official confirmation of a third season from Amazon would be better, but the track records of and meticulous vetting procedures employed by the four sites/publications I mentioned means that Deadline's casual mention of a third season for WoT is still a very promising development for fans of the property.

Agreed, however I know that platforms such as Dragonmount are holding back on officially reporting on S3 being greenlit until they get confirmation from Amazon directly.

[DigificWriter]

Just now, TheMatCauthon said:

Agreed, however I know that platforms such as Dragonmount are holding back on officially reporting on S3 being greenlit until they get confirmation from Amazon directly.

 

Which is their prerogative.

 

Official confirmation of a third season directly from Amazon would set Deadline's reporting in stone, but even barring official confirmation, Deadline having casually let it slip that a third season has been confirmed is a very promising development because, as I mentioned, they would not have done so without first fully vetting the information and confirming its veracity to their own satisfaction.

[AdamA]

They did say they'd film season three immediately after season two films in order to catch up from the Covid setbacks, so if that's true, it would need to be approved before doing that, which seems to mean they already know even if they don't want to officially announce. The closest thing we might get is a casting announcement that is obviously Aviendha even if they don't say right away who she is.

[Andra]

7 hours ago, Cauthonfan4 said:

Because parrot doesn't analyze watching time. It only analyzes online engagement. Which means that even say....a bunch of upset fans creating a firestorm online at the show count as a positive thing for wheel of times online engagement, pushing them higher up parrot analytics.

 

Parrots basic tactics are "•any press is good press".

Which would also mean that any property that had any pre-existing fan sites (like this one) would have the deck stacked in their favor.

 

Do you know of a link to how they calculate their scores?  Because the only thing I could find that specifies a difference from conventional ratings is their statement that they limit their scores to the first thirty days after the premiere.

[TheMatCauthon]

 

The Deadline article has been updated. It now says:

The Prime Video series, which films in Prague, has been picked up for another season, and any potential Henney guest appearance onCriminal Minds would be subject to his commitment to Wheel Of Time and scheduling, sources said.