It seemed as though Season 2 of Wednesday was bound to be the same smash hit that Season 1 was. After all, the show is beloved by its huge fanbase, who highly anticipated the second season in the nearly three years it took Netflix to make it. But it turns out that Season 2 is simply not seeing anywhere close to the success that Season 1 had.
In fact, the number of folks who have tuned into the season in its third week airing has dropped a whopping 50%, according to the current top 10 report from What’s On Netflix. The outlet claims the show has reached about 92.5 million Netflix subscribers in its first three weeks since Season 2 premiered — which represents a significant drop from the 150 million subscribers the show was able to round up during the same timeframe for Season 1.
There’s much speculation in the Wednesday fandom about this decline in viewership, and honestly, most of the theories could hold water. Some fans think that the TikTok dance trend that went viral during Season 1 was a major boon to viewership, and since Season 2 doesn’t have its own, it didn’t have that external force to boost numbers.
Other fans also think the decision to release the show — which some of them deem to be a “Halloween show” — in the summer rather than in the fall is a misstep for views.
Another subset of folks think that potentially splitting the eight episode season into two parts is where the show went wrong, even though there is barely a month between both parts airing as the first half premiered on August 6 and the second comes on September 3. That said, some of those fans have also noted that it’s possible certain people are waiting for the entire season to be available in order to start binge watching Season 2 (this is Netflix after all!) — so it stands to reason that the series will probably see an uptick in viewership at that time.
It will be interesting to see if Wednesday hits its Season 1 numbers in the first few weeks of September, but either way, it’s clear the Wednesday fan base is still on an Addams Family kick.
Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.
