‘The Gentlemen’ Season 2 Is Another Casualty Of Netflix’s Biggest Problem

The Gentlemen

COURTESY OF NETFLIX

While The Gentlemen season 2 is slowly moving up Netflix’s top 10 list, that will not likely change its fortunes in terms of being an overall viewership disappointment compared to season 1. Early figures show a 45% viewership drop between seasons, something that would potentially kill other shows, were it not for the lucky break that The Gentlemen was already renewed for season 3 before this.

This is not exclusive to The Gentlemen, and reflects what is quickly turning into Netflix’s biggest problem with its releases, the fact that so many viewers are bailing on subsquent seasons of shows, even ones that were well-liked or well-viewed previously. Can you guess the reason?

New data shows that long waits between seasons are hurting Netflix shows, perhaps more so than other services simply because of the sheer amount of content it produces and the way it’s structured. A new report by analyst firm Luminate cites data that a hiatus above 1.5 years leads to a reduced audience in the US market. It said that every title it sampled dropped, where even Stranger Things was down 25% because of a sprawling 3.5-year break between its penultimate and final seasons. Here’s the data of drops for some notable shows:

• Wednesday season 2 – 2.75-year gap, 59% drop in views
• The Night Agent season 2 – 1.8-year gap, 47% drop
• Bridgerton season 4 – 1.75-year gap, 20% drop
• Ginny and Georgia season 3 – 2.5-year gap, 19% drop

So in the context of all this, Ginny and Georgia is actually good, given the smaller drop with that long of a wait, but the problem is very clear. And again, this does affect other services. A 2-year gap between The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’s first two seasons caused the show to lose 57% of its audience (albeit I would argue part of that was because season 1 was not terribly good).