You’re not imagining things: People are certainly watching Amazon’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” series, even though the splashy and expensive new show has exactly zero customer reviews and ratings a full day after its release.
Fans can still review the show as they would with any other show on Amazon Prime Video or product sold on Amazon, but in the case of “The Rings of Power,” the streamer has implemented a 72-hour delay on all user reviews. In fact, if you try to click the “Write a Review” button on the show prior to watching the episode, a notice pops up that tells you to “Please come back after you have finished watching the video.”
A rep for Amazon first confirmed to Variety on Friday that the 72-hour delay was put in place recently, first quietly on “A League of Their Own” that launched this summer, and now on its “Lord of the Rings” show. The move is designed to weed out bots or trolls from the genuine audience reception.
Reps for Amazon did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
That approach may prove to be necessary, as the show has already seemingly been “review bombed” on sites like Rotten Tomatoes, with critics lauding the show with an 84% score while “fans” saddled it with a 36% grade, with thousands of reviews pouring in before the dust has even settled on the whole series.
“The Rings of Power” in particular has had to fend off Internet trolls for months leading up to its release, with more racially intolerant admirers of J.R.R. Tolkien’s books attacking the show for its diverse casting rather than having Middle Earth’s elves, dwarves and hobbit…err, “harfoots,” be populated by all-white inhabitants.
For “A League of Their Own,” the series has over 6,600 user reviews on Amazon Prime Video with a 4.3 out of 5 rating, with roughly 14% of the viewers grading it at 1-star.
User reviews for “The Rings of Power” will start populating Amazon Prime Video on Sunday.
