‘I don’t have any idea what the audience is’: The showrunner of an instant classic streaming series demands viewing data transparency

It might be a critical darling that boasts a Rotten Tomatoes critical approval rating of 96 percent, an audience average of 86 percent, was lauded by fans as arguably the single greatest piece of content its franchise has ever put out, and was very recently bestowed with eight Primetime Emmy nominations including Outstanding Drama Series, but is Andor a hit?

Like virtually every other major streaming service, Disney Plus has always been highly reticent – as in, completely unwilling – to divulge concrete viewership data, with third-party analytics firms the only ones that seem to make an attempt to crunch the numbers and determine whether or not an episodic exclusive or original feature film scored big numbers.

If you thought showrunner Tony Gilroy would have the faintest idea, though, you’d be dead wrong. Speaking to IndieWire after the Emmy nods were made public, the creator and executive producer of Andor called for more transparency after being left baffled by the secrecy.

“One of the central issues of this entire labor experience is that I don’t have any idea what the audience is. We don’t know what that is, and I think that the obscurity of data doesn’t help anyone. Really. I think it looks like low-hanging fruit and easy profitability for certain corporations, but in the end it just crushes any kind of free market. It crushes the economics of the business, it means people are being overpaid and underpaid and never properly paid.

It means that productions are overloaded with expenses up top because what used to be commonly residuals and royalties now have to be front loaded. I think it’s distorted and warped and is close to ruining this amazing industry. So I wish I knew how many people watched, I wish I knew who they were, and I’m not sure that that’s possible.”

When the people responsible for acclaimed and award-nominated streaming shows have absolutely no idea if their efforts are yielding the desired results, then maybe it’s time to start letting them in on the ground floor, but at least Andor carries the weight of the Star Wars brand and landed a two-season order right out of the gate.