Since “The Acolyte” aired on Disney+, the pop culture media has been tripping all over itself trying to paint the show as a maligned victim of the “toxic fandom.” The narrative is that the show was actually good and people are “racists'” “misogynists,” or something along those lines.
They’ve been giving the same excuses every time a new “Star Wars” show comes out and underperforms instead of admitting that maybe it wasn’t that good.
In an interview with Vulture, Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman explained why “The Acolyte” was canceled.
It’s because the performance of the show did not justify its cost.
Here is what Vulture asked Bergman,
“It feels like it’s had a bumpier road of late compared to Marvel. The Acolyte had many strong reviews and did well in the ratings its first week out, but you ultimately opted against a second season. Why didn’t you move forward? And can you offer any hint as to how Skeleton Crew is doing, or its future?”
Bergman responded by saying,
“So as it relates to Acolyte, we were happy with our performance, but it wasn’t where we needed it to be given the cost structure of that title, quite frankly, to go and make a season two. So that’s the reason why we didn’t do that. Skeleton Crew is in process now, so we’ll see. We’ve seen some growth on that. We’ll see how that goes. As you said, the reviews have been excellent on Skeleton Crew, so we’ll have to see how that all plays out as it moves forward.”
Basically, it cost too much for the viewership it got.
The show was incredibly expensive, with reports indicating it cost between $180 and $230 million. While it did okay initially with the two-episode premiere, the show declined in viewership.
At the end of the day, numbers caused the cancellation of “The Acolyte.” The general public didn’t want to watch the show, and honestly, the people loudly hating it still counted as views and “engagement.” All the engagement combined was not enough to save it.
Can we please stop blaming people who didn’t like the show now?
The end.
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