Prime Video’s Mega-Millions Series Citadel Is Defeated By Netflix’s Barbecue Showdown
If you haven’t heard of the Amazon Prime series Citadel, you’re not alone, as the show is already being considered a massive flop for the streaming platform. According to IGN, the show barely managed to climb into the top ten streaming originals since its debut, but it even fell behind Netflix’s Barbeque Showdown in that category.
The difference is that it’s highly unlikely the barbeque competition series cost Netflix $300 million.
Amazon Prime’s massively expensive spy series Citadel has been overtaken in a stunning upset by a Netflix cooking show.
It would be one thing if Amazon’s Citadel was just a show that underperformed and failed to make waves, but Amazon spent hundreds of millions of dollars on it, and it barely got noticed by viewers.
The show is literally one of the most expensive in history, and it lost to a show called Barbecue Showdown in the ratings. Sure, barbecue competitions can be fun to watch, but they shouldn’t be more popular than a big-budget spy series with a star-studded cast.
If you weren’t tuned in, Citadel is a television series that was created by Josh Appelbaum, Bryan Oh, and David Weil and executive produced by the Russo Brothers. It co-stars Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra as two superspies, with a supporting cast that includes Stanley Tucci, Ashleigh Cummings, Roland Moller, Osy Ikhile, Caoilinn Springall, and Lesley Manville.
Citadel has failed to enter the top 10 most-watched streaming shows in the U.S. in any week since it debuted at the end of April.
With a solid creative team and cast like that, along with the enormous budget, you would think it would be a show that outperformed something called Barbecue Showdown. However, this isn’t the case, and Citadel doesn’t look to be getting more popular anytime soon.
The show has failed to enter the top 10 most-watched streaming shows in the U.S. in any week since it debuted at the end of April. While Amazon seems to have some confidence in the show and has greenlit an additional season, it’s unclear if the show will have much life beyond that.
Still, there’s always a chance that the second season of Citadel could be a marked improvement over the first and draw in the viewership that Amazon seems to think it has the potential to draw in. At the very least, they’ll want to beat out Barbecue Showdown next time around.
Behind-the-scenes drama impacted Citadel
It’s also worth noting that the first season likely had an inflated budget due to extenuating circumstances, and it’s unlikely that the following season will cost $300 million as well (though you never know.)
The first season of Citadel initially had Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec as showrunners until they ran into creative differences with the Russos, leading to David Weil being brought on as showrunner.
This change in direction led to extensive reshoots, which caused the budget to balloon and make it the second-most expensive show of all time. While Amazon probably wasn’t happy about that, it’s not like the company doesn’t have the money to take the hit.
With the second season of Citadel likely keeping the same showrunner and not needing extensive reshoots, it probably won’t be as expensive as the first. If you’re interested, you can check out the first season on Amazon Prime now. You can stream Barbecue Showdown on Netflix.
