Picture: Netflix
After several months without any content from Ryan Murphy, in a short space of time, Netflix subscribers were treated to two new series. DAHMER and The Watcher. Despite being the less popular of the two, that hasn’t stopped The Watcher from amassing hundreds of millions of viewing hours and has now officially been renewed for a second season.
The Watcher is a Netflix Original thriller mystery created by Ian Brennan and Ryan Murphy. The story of The Watcher is loosely based on the 2018 New York article “The Cut” by Reeves Wiedeman.
To date, The Watcher is the 12th Netflix original produced by Ryan Murphy, and the 6th original series.
The Watcher season 2 Netflix renewal status
Official Netflix Renewal Status: Renewed (Last Updated: 03/11/2022)
On November 7th, Netflix announced it had renewed The Watcher (alongside MONSTER) for a second season.
Bela Bajaria, Head of Global TV at Netflix, said, “Audiences can’t take their eyes off Monster and The Watcher. The creative team of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan on Monster along with Eric Newman on The Watcher are masterful storytellers who captivated audiences all over the world. The back-to-back force of these two series is due to Ryan’s distinct original voice which created cultural sensations and we are thrilled to continue telling stories in the Monster and Watcher universes.”
The series got off to a strong start on Netflix, achieving over 125 million hours in its first week. A 19% jump in week 2 saw the series achieve over 148 million hours. However, the series has seen a significant drop of 54% in a week, only able to pull in 67 million hours.
In total, the series has over 340 million hours viewed.
If Netflix was to renew The Watcher, it takes many different factors into consideration, In particular, a drop of over 50% in its viewing ratings within the first few weeks of its release is alarming.
| Week Period | Hours Viewed(M) | Rank | Week in Top 10 |
|---|---|---|---|
| October 9th, 2022 to October 16th, 2022 | 125,010,000 | 1 | 1 |
| October 16th, 2022 to October 23rd, 2022 | 148,240,000 (+19%) | 1 | 2 |
| October 23rd, 2022 to October 30th, 2022 | 67,510,000 (-54%) | 2 | 3 |
It can’t be helped, but The Watcher’s performance will also be pitted against the other most recently released Ryan Murphy series on Netflix, DAHMER, which has over 934 million hours, outperforming The Watcher by almost 600 million hours.
Murphy is currently in the last year of his whopping $300 million mega-deal with Netflix and is still currently busy working on multiple projects for Netflix, including three television series, and a movie. This also doesn’t include the second season of Ratched, which has yet to enter production.
Outside of Netflix, Murphy is also an executive producer on more projects for FX, in particular an expansion upon the American Story franchise with American Sports Story and American Love Story.
All this considered, a brand new season of The Watcher may be low on the priority list.
Does The Watcher need a second season?
There could be arguments made for the second season of The Watcher, however, we belong in the camp that thinks that the series should end after one season.
The ending of the series left a sour taste in many people’s mouths as the identity of “The Watcher” was never revealed. This is because, in real life, the identity of “The Watcher” has never been revealed either, so rather than choosing a fictionalized ending to give the audience closure, it instead went in the direction of real life where the identity still remains a mystery.
It’s hard to see where the story would progress as the Brannock family are well and truly obsessed with the house, just like their neighbors, and some of the members of Ode to a House. Realistically, to give the series closure you would need to reveal the identity of the “The Watcher” even if it’s not true to real life.
Are you looking forward to seeing a second season of The Watcher on Netflix? Let us know in the comments below!
Rating: TV-MA
