Ryan Murphy returned to Netflix with two new series in a short period of time after several months without any new material. The Watcher and DAHMER. The Watcher has amassed hundreds of millions of viewing hours despite being the less well-liked of the two, and it has now officially been renewed for a second season. The Watcher is a thriller mystery produced exclusively for Netflix by Ian Brennan and Ryan Murphy. The Watcher’s plot is partially inspired on Reeves Wiedeman’s 2018 New York piece “The Cut.” The Watcher is now Ryan Murphy’s sixth original series and his 12th overall Netflix original production.
The Watcher season 2 on Netflix has been renewed
The Watcher and MONSTER were both renewed by Netflix for a second season on November 7th. According to Netflix’s Head of Global TV, Bela Bajaria, “The Watcher and Monster have audiences’ full attention. The Watcher and Monster creators Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan and The Watcher creator Eric Newman are superb storytellers who have captivated audiences all across the world. Because of Ryan’s distinctive creative voice, these two series have a powerful back-to-back energy, and we are excited to keep writing tales set in the Monster and Watcher universes.
Over 125 million hours were seen by Netflix users in the first week of the series, which was off to a fantastic start. The second week of the series showed a 19% increase, clocking over 148 million hours. However, the series has experienced a massive 54% reduction in viewers in just one week, garnering only 67 million hours. Over 340 million hours of the series have been watched in total. If Netflix were to renew The Watcher, there are many other aspects that would be taken into account. In particular, a reduction in viewership of more than 50% within the first few weeks of the show’s release is concerning.
It’s inevitable that The Watcher’s performance will be compared to that of the other most recent Ryan Murphy Netflix series, DAHMER, which has received over 934 million hours and has outperformed The Watcher by about 600 million hours. Murphy is now working on numerous projects for Netflix, including three television shows and a movie, and is in the final year of his enormous $300 million mega-deal. Additionally, the second season of Ratched is not included because it has not yet begun production. In addition to his work for Netflix, Murphy is an executive producer on additional FX projects, including two additions to the American Story franchise, American Sports Story and American Love Story.