If you’re an avid follower of the WDW Pro channel (and I hope you are) you might have seen a story the other day about how Amazon Prime’s streaming service is currently trouncing Disney+ in terms of viewership and popularity. Now to be fair, that’s not exactly a high bar at the moment, but we recently received a juicy email from an insider which sheds some light on why this may be, and it has to do with everyone’s favorite subject: DEI!
Lenny Henry as Sadoc Burrows and Beau Cassidy in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022), Amazon Studios
Yes, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Some people say it is an overdue step in accounting for past injustices. Some say it is the religious foundation upon which modern-day wokeness resides. Others say it is both. What isn’t up for debate, however, is how pervasive DEI has become in Western culture. There likely isn’t a single organization out there that it hasn’t impacted in some way, including Amazon.
Thanks to this anonymous source, we now know a bit more about exactly how its impacted Amazon behind closed doors. Of course, please note that this is rumor and speculation as it comes from a third party source. I have also scrubbed and paraphrased where necessary to remove any possible identifying information.
Avienda played by Ayoola Smart, Perrin Aybara played by Marcus Rutherford in The Wheel of Time (2023), Prime Video
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Within what was sent to us, there are a number of points of interest:
First, confirmation that Amazon is one of the best when it comes to doing market research and focus group testing, and that this applies to both pre-release and post-release of their films and tv shows. They are apparently extremely proficient at gathering, collating and analysing their data, which tracks for a company of this size and caliber.
Second, their viewer data has shown that emphasizing DEI in their media content has negatively impacted its appeal and has resulted in poor performance when it comes to metrics such as costs, viewership within the first week, month, year, etc. This has especially held true with their high-budget fantasy shows, such as the The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and The Wheel of Time. Both shows featured big budgets and strict DEI measures, and both have apparently done quite poorly with audiences. One report claims that 63% of audiences did not finish The Rings of Power Season 1 after starting it.
Pictured (L-R): Zoë Robins (Nynaeve al’Meara), Barney Harris (Mat Cauthon), Daniel Henney (Lan Mondragoran), Rosamund Pike (Moiraine Damodred), Madeleine Madden (Egwene al’Vere), Josha Stradowski (Rand al’Thor), Marcus Rutherford (Perrin Aybara) in The Wheel of Time (2021), Amazon Studios
Now here’s the kicker: apparently Amazon is fully aware of all of this but they keep doing it anyway. In fact, according to our source, Amazon’s data-driven conclusions are often ignored when they contradict the DEI-driven views of what are termed the “content gatekeepers” within the company. In other words, they know ahead of time that their DEI-heavy shows will not do well, but they still go ahead with them.
The million-dollar question here is “why?”. Why on earth would they purposely move forward with a product when they know ahead of time that it will likely perform poorly?
Because, apparently, they are true believers.
Sophia Nomvete as Princess Disa in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022), Amazon Studios
It appears that, irrespective of their research, Amazon continues to firmly believe in and support DEI initiatives even when it costs them financially. “Grandstanding” is the term our source used. However, the way Amazon implements those initiatives is not quite as ruinous as it may seem. According to our source, Amazon apparently manages their DEI strategies from a global, annual perspective rather than applying a DEI filter to each show individually. This means that while they prioritize DEI, their definition of “success” is tied to their overall DEI score at the end of the year, rather than for each project.
Factors that Amazon takes into account at year-end include the number of high-scoring DEI projects they have produced, the amount of budget allocated to them, and the extent of their promotional efforts for them. This is a key difference from Disney, who requires that each and every project of theirs individually meet the same high DEI standards.
Cynthia Addai-Robinson as Queen Regent Míriel, Ismael Cruz Córdova as Arondir, and Charlie Vickers as Halbrand in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022), Amazon Studios
“But wait!” you say, “Amazon greenlit shows like Reacher and the Chris Pratt movie The Tomorrow War, which both get an F-minus when graded against a DEI checklist!”.
Yes indeed, and that’s due to the above. As a result of Amazon choosing to “average out” their DEI accounting across all of their shows over the course of the year, they are able to greenlight a number of lower-budget projects that technically fail to meet the required DEI grade but still contribute to their overall content slate.
Alan Ritchson as Jack Reacher in Reacher (2023), Prime Video
Think of it in terms of a typical high-school class: as long as most of the students pass, the overall average grade can absorb a couple of delinquents who fail out. Ironically, it’s these lower-profile “DEI-failures” that manage to attract a substantial audience due to their broader appeal.
To sum it up, Amazon has been straddling both sides of the fence when it comes to DEI: on the one hand loudly showing-off its virtue by producing expensive bombs while on the other hand quietly slipping through enough “problematic” content to offset their losses.
While DEI policies can be successful, it seems that Amazon has not yet found the winning formula to do so, and must keep choosing between either having DEI initiatives or commercial success, but not both.
Chris Pratt as James Reece in The Terminal List (2022), Prime Video
What do you make of this rumor?
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“While DEI policies can be successful, it seems that Amazon has not yet found the winning formula to do so”
I defy you to name one DEI policy that could be considered “successful”, with success being measured in something other than merely making back the money invested, since that could be done despite DEI, and not because of it.