The Nielsen ratings for the first two episodes of Skeleton Crew are in, revealing that they are worse than The Acolyte, worse than Andor, and seemingly the worst Star Wars ratings on Disney+.
Skeleton Crew is also the first Star Wars show not to have its premiere make the Nielsen ratings which are automatically turned on in your Disney+ accounts. Samba TV has also again refused to publish numbers. Samba TV hasn’t published ratings for a majority of the recent Star Wars or Marvel shows, likely at the request of Disney who is an investor in the company as obviously the ratings are in the gutter.
Particularly alarming is that Skeleton Crew premiered its first two episodes on the same night, yet still failed to appear in the Nielsen ratings despite having an entire week to qualify.
What are the ratings?
Nielsen released its ratings for the week of Dec. 2–Dec. 8, covering the premiere of the first two episodes of Skeleton Crew on Dec. 2. However, the show failed to make the list.
The bottom spot on Nielsen’s streaming originals list belongs to The Great British Baking Show, with 382 million minutes viewed. Since Skeleton Crew didn’t make the list, its total viewership was below 382 million minutes—meaning the average per episode was under 191 million minutes.
The Acolyte also premiered its first two episodes in one night and made the Nielsen ratings with 488 million minutes viewed, averaging 244 million per episode.
Andor premiered with its first three episodes and made the list with 624 million minutes, averaging 208 million per episode.
Again, the two episodes of Skeleton Crew average lower than 191, falling short of both The Acolyte and Andor.
Fans have become apathetic to Disney Star Wars
So, what happened? Why didn’t fans tune in to watch Skeleton Crew? It’s from Spider-Man director Jon Watts, so you’d think it would at least be decent, right?
The answer seems clear: fans just aren’t interested. After Disney’s handling of the Star Wars sequel trilogy and Disney+ shows like The Acolyte, The Book of Boba Fett, and The Mandalorian Season 3, it seems many fans have simply stopped caring about Star Wars.
Now, a divided fanbase isn’t necessarily a bad thing—some fans love it, others hate it—but even the haters will still watch. The real problem arises when fans stop caring. When that happens, they stop watching, and, just as crucially, they stop spending their money.
Fans are tired of the BS from the actors, the studios, and the shows. Reports The Acolyte killed Star Wars seem true. A report has said due to the failure of The Acolyte that Disney is pulling back on Star Wars content on Disney+ and only releasing one series a year going forward. Currently, only Ahsoka Season 2 is in the works, but that, too, is now rumored to possibly end with its second season. Andor Season 2 premieres on April 22, 2025 and that will be its last. So following The Acolyte, it does seem as if Star Wars is dead on Disney+.
