Last week, Disney released the first two episodes of “Ahsoka” on Disney+ around the world.  The show is set after the fall of the Empire, “Star Wars: Ahsoka” follows the former Jedi Knight Ahsoka Tano as she investigates an emerging threat to a vulnerable galaxy.

According to Samba TV, the first episode of the show was watched by 1.2 million US households over its first six days.  This puts the show on par with the viewership of last year’s “Andor” premiere, but slightly lower than the third season of “The Mandalorian”, which pulled in 1.7 million US households over the first five days. It’s also down about 50% on the viewership of the first episode of “Obi-Wan Kenobi”, which was watched by 2.4 million US households over the first five days. The second episode had a slight dip in viewership, as it was only watched by 956K US households.

Disney has tried to create more buzz to boost viewership for “Ahsoka” at the last minute, by shifting the release time six hours earlier, to Tuesday evening, where the show premiered at 6PM PT / 9PM ET.  So it’s unclear if releasing the show during a primetime viewing in the United States.

Said Cole Strain, Samba TV’s VP of Measurement Products, told Deadline:

“Disney+ continues to find success with live-action Star Wars series, with Ahsoka serving as the latest show to draw in more than 1 million households across its first six days. Rosario Dawson’s portrayal of the Jedi shows that not only are fans eager for more adventures in the Star Wars universe, but that they’ll gladly watch shows led by female characters. With women serving as five of the six main characters, this opens a new chapter in the Star Wars saga.”

It’s important to note that Samba’s data is only based on its research panel, which includes 3 million smart TVs, balanced and weighted to the U.S. Census across age, gender, ethnicity and household income. Its panel is nearly 100 times larger than Nielsen’s household footprint of 45K homes.  So, the actual data from Disney maybe different. However, Disney tends to only reveal some viewership data when a show breaks a record as a way of promoting the show.  And this data from Samba doesn’t include viewership from other countries.

Comparing the debut of “Ahsoka” with some of the most recent releases from other platforms, Netflix’s “Depp V Heard”, was watched by 1.1 million US households, “Painkiller” was watched by 1 million US households in the first four days, and the first episode of the latest season of Hulu’s “Only Murders In The Building” was watched by 669k US households in the first five days of release.

Unfortunately, it looks like the show’s premiere hasn’t pulled in many new viewers, but is keeping existing Star Wars fans happy.  And it’s why Disney is going to be slowing down the amount of Star Wars shows coming to Disney+ in the future, to reduce franchise fatigue but also to save money, since Star Wars shows are expensive to create.

“Ahsoka” stars Rosario Dawson, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ray Stevenson, Ivanna Sakhno, Diana Lee Inosanto, David Tennant, Lars Mikkelsen and Eman Esfandi. The episodes are directed by Dave Filoni, Steph Green, Peter Ramsey, Jennifer Getzinger, Geeta Vasant Patel and Rick Famuyiwa. Dave Filoni is the head writer and executive produces along with Jon Favreau, Kathleen Kennedy, Colin Wilson and Carrie Beck. Karen Gilchrist serves as co-executive producer.

Did you watch “Ahsoka” within the first five days of release?  Let us know on social media!

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

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