Just over a month after Amazon premiered its expensive spy thriller series Citadel, the show has yet to break into the Nielsen top 10. The series, which stars Priyanka Chopra and Richard Madden and reportedly cost $185 million, has already been renewed for a second season, despite receiving lukewarm reviews with a 54% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
The Nielsen streaming Top 10 for the week of May 8-14, released on Thursday, revealed that Citadel has failed to make the list for three consecutive weeks. Although the show debuted on April 28 and had its first three days counted in the April 24-30 charts, its performance in the subsequent weeks has been underwhelming.
Nielsen reported that Citadel narrowly missed the top 10 streaming originals chart for the week of April 24-30, with 306 million viewing minutes, while the 10th spot was held by Netflix’s John Mulaney: Baby J with 379 million minutes. The series has not made it into the streaming originals Top 10 for either the May 1-7 or May 8-14 charts.
While there were expectations that Citadel would take longer to reach the Top 10 due to Amazon prioritizing marketing in international markets, the streaming service announced in late May that the show is experiencing “breakout success” globally, particularly in countries like India, Italy, Brazil, South Africa, and the U.K. It has been labeled as Prime Video’s second most-watched new original series outside the U.S. and fourth most-watched worldwide.
Despite this international acclaim, the lack of traction among American audiences suggests that Citadel has yet to resonate with viewers in the U.S. Amazon has already initiated plans for several spin-offs tailored to the Indian and Italian markets, although Nielsen’s metrics only account for U.S. viewing minutes.
Citadel follows an independent global spy agency that fell eight years ago, by operatives of Manticore.
With Citadel’s fall, elite agents Mason Kane (Richard Madden) and Nadia Sinh (Priyanka Chopra Jonas) had their memories wiped as they narrowly escaped with their lives.
They’ve remained hidden ever since, building new lives under new identities, unaware of their pasts. Until one night, when Mason is tracked down by his former Citadel colleague, Bernard Orlick (Stanley Tucci), who desperately needs his help to prevent Manticore from establishing a new world order.
Mason seeks out his former partner, Nadia, and the two spies embark on a mission that takes them around the world in an effort to stop Manticore, all while contending with a relationship built on secrets, lies, and a dangerous-yet-undying love.
