Disney+ Show Ratings Have Plummeted Since Gina Carano Firing?
Disney+ has taken a massive hit to their bottom line after letting Gina Carano go from The Mandalorian. The platform's numbers are way down
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Gina Carano will likely be a topic Disney has to deal with for more time than they’d ever feel comfortable. That’s what happens when you have one of the most high-profile firings ever from a show. And there’s some chance the move for Carano’s ouster might be hurting the Disney+ platform’s bottom line. According to the YouTuber Overlord, the streaming platform has seen a massive decline in views and streaming hours since letting Carano go.
Now, Overlord is crediting sources on these numbers and possibly picking and choosing the spots to make the point. But if the numbers are accurate then there is possibly something to be said for declining on-screen time for Disney+ subscribers watching some of the newer offerings. He quotes one number saying that WandaVision averaged around 7.5 million viewers per episode. And Raya and the Dragon might have only had three million sets of eyeballs on it which would represent a major disappointment for a high-profile movie release. And according to this *report* the initial sourcing is claiming that the Gina Carano firing might be at the heart of some of this decline.
Sticking the lack of viewership of other Disney+ shows and movies at the feet of a decision to fire Gina Carano from The Mandalorian does feel like a tenuous relationship at best. While the studio letting the actress go may have been wildly unpopular in some circles, it’s hard to imagine an incredibly large swath of people choosing to exit the platform or sit out programming in solidarity. The best way to tell if it was a 1:1 correlation would be to see the streaming numbers when she releases her first film or series with The Daily Wire. In that way, we’ll be able to see if she took a big chunk of fans with her.
It may just mean that this batch of programs and movies were never going to reach the massive heights of The Mandalorian which topped the Nielsen streaming ratings for the final week of its Season Two run. According to the tracking service, the show was the most-watched streaming series of 2020. Was this because of Gina Carano? No, not solely of course. Will the show take a hit without her? It stands to reason that some will see fit to be done with it based on the casting decision. But there’s a good chance it still reaches massive heights when it comes back and these other mentioned programs and movies just didn’t have the broad appeal of the Star Wars universe.
Gina Carano was fired from The Mandalorian back in early February. It followed a months-long will-they-won’t-they between the actress and the studio after she had created a significant social media stir with some of her postings. At first, they came in the form of skepticism around the Covid-19 pandemic regulations as well as the legitimacy of the US Presidential Election. But things culminated when she offered a post comparing the plight of Jewish people in the Holocaust to the treatment of modern-day Republicans. This led to her ouster. But did it come at the cost of Disney’s bottom line? That much remains to be seen. This latest rumor suggests more folks jumped ship when Carano left the studio.
