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On The Table Read Magazine, “the best entertainment magazine in the UK“, experts at Rant Casino found the top 3 TV Shows that lost popularity after going from beloved to boring, and which episodes ranked the worst of the worst.
From regency romances like Bridgerton to fantasy dramas like The Witcher, binge worthy TV shows are always popular! But sometimes TV shows go several seasons past their peak, with audiences falling away out of boredom, and ratings plummeting as they reach the final season.
To discover which series took the biggest downward turn from their pilot episode., RANT Casino analysed every episode rating from popular TV shows over the past 5-10 years.
Top 3 TV Shows That Lost Popularity
| TV Series | Duration | Pilot episode IMDb rating /10 | Most recent episode IMDb rating /10 | *Average rating decline per episode |
| Westworld | 2016-2022 | 8.8 | 7.0 | -0.028 |
| Game of Thrones | 2011-2019 | 8.9 | 4.0 | -0.014 |
| The Crown | 2016-ongoing | 8.2 | 7.4 | -0.012 |
Westworld
Peak episode: 1×10 – The Bicameral Mind
Worst rated episode: 4×08 – Que Será, Será
RANT Casino found that Westworld is the TV series that took the biggest downturn in ratings.
Westworld is an American science fiction-thriller television series created by husband-wife duo Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy. The series takes place in fictional Westworld, a technologically advanced, Western-themed amusement park populated completely by synthetic androids dubbed “Hosts”. Westworld caters to high-paying visitors dubbed “Newcomers” (also known as “Guests”), who can do whatever they wish within the park, without fear of retaliation from the Hosts.
The series explores a number of complex themes, including the nature of consciousness, the ethics of artificial intelligence, and the relationship between humans and machines. It is also a visually stunning show, with sweeping landscapes, elaborate costumes, and cutting-edge special effects.
Westworld has been praised by critics for its complex storytelling, well-developed characters, and thought-provoking themes. It has also been nominated for numerous awards, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Drama and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series.
The series follows a number of different characters, both human and Host, as they navigate the complex and often dangerous world of Westworld.
The series pilot aired with an IMDb rating of 8.8/10 but the episode’s ratings declined at a rate of -0.028 per episode.
The final installment, Season 4, Episode 8, titled Que Será, Será, is the show’s lowest rated episode at 7.0/10. With the season one finale (S1, E10), The Bicameral Mind, rated as the series peak episode, with an audience/IMDB rating of 9.7/10.
Game Of Thrones
Peak episode: 3×09 – The Rains of Castamere
Worst rated episode: 8×06 – The Iron Throne
Ranking in second is Game of Thrones, with the initial episode receiving a high rating of 8.9/10 from reviewers.
Game of Thrones is an American fantasy drama television series created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss for HBO. It is an adaptation of A Song of Ice and Fire, a series of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin, the first of which is the 1996 novel A Game of Thrones. The show was produced by Benioff, Weiss, Martin, Frank Doelger, Carolyn Strauss, and Vince Gerardis.
The series premiered on HBO in the United States on April 17, 2011, and concluded on May 19, 2019, with 73 episodes broadcast over eight seasons. Set on the fictional continents of Westeros and Essos, Game of Thrones has several plots and a large ensemble cast, but the primary story arc follows a civil war among several noble families for control of the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms. Other story arcs include the attempts of the last living scion of the overthrown Targaryen dynasty to reclaim the throne, the rising threat of the impending winter, and the mythical creatures of the North.
The series was acclaimed by critics for its acting, complex characters, realistic portrayal of violence, political intrigue, and production values. It has also been criticized for its sexual violence, graphic scenes, and pacing, particularly in the later seasons.
Game of Thrones quickly became one of the most popular and critically acclaimed television series of all time, with a record viewership of 44.2 million for the series finale in the United States. It has won numerous awards, including 59 Primetime Emmy Awards, the most for any drama series. It also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Drama in 2012 and the Peabody Award in 2011.
As the TV adaptation moved away from the plot of the ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ book series around season 5, it saw the ratings plummet.
The final episode, The Iron Throne, was the lowest rated episode across the whole series (4/10). Although receiving the largest IMDb rating drop (4.9) from the first episode to the last, the series overall downward trend stands at -0.014, with several highly rated episodes throughout.
Season 3, Episode 9 The Rains of Castamere, is also touted as one of the show’s most memorable episodes. As Game of Thrones peak episode, it rated a whopping 9.9/10.
The Crown
Peak episode: 3×03 – Aberfan
Worst rated episode: 5×10 – Decommissioned
Based on the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, The Crown comes in third.
The Crown is a historical drama television series about the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, created and principally written by Peter Morgan and produced by Left Bank Pictures and Sony Pictures Television for Netflix. Morgan developed it from his drama film The Queen (2006) and especially his stage play The Audience (2013).
The Crown is a fictionalized account of the Queen’s reign, but it is based on real events and people. The show follows Elizabeth’s life from her wedding to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, in 1947 to the present day. Each season of the show covers a decade of the Queen’s reign, and the series has cast a new cast of actors to play the main roles in each season.
The Crown has been praised for its lavish production values, its complex characters, and its thought-provoking exploration of the British monarchy. The show has also been nominated for numerous awards, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Drama and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series.
The pilot episode received an IMDb rating of 8.2/10; compared to its most recent (and worst rated) episode to date, S5 E10, Decommissioned at 7.4/10. The average downward rating trend of the series stands at –0.012 but with one final season yet to come, there is still a hope for a turnaround.
The Crowns peak episode, Aberfan, episode 3 of season 3 saw its highest rating of 9.3/10 – which sees tragedy strike in the Welsh town of Aberfan, based on true events.
Methodology
- RANT Casino sought to find out which TV series got better and which got worse with time.
- A comprehensive seed list of 14 popular series from the past 5-10 years was compiled utilising IMDb and Reddit.
- Following this, the ratings for each episode were scraped from IMDb.
- For each show, the 3-episode moving average was calculated as the average of the previous three episodes. This was used to determine where a show ‘peaks’ and where it ‘falls’.
- Additionally, the moving-average delta was calculated as the difference between each 3-episode moving average.
- An average rating for each season was also calculated for all shows and a formula was used, where if the trend was > 0.01 the show got better over time, if it was < -0.01 it got worse, otherwise stayed the same.
- This data was updated June 2023 and is subject to change.
This data was updated June 2023 and is subject to change.
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