Yes, We Can Now Safely Call Amazon's Russo Bros. Spy Thriller 'Citadel' a $300 Million Disaster

With a reported first-season production budget of around $300 million, Amazon's Russo Brothers-produced spy thriller Citadel is also the second most expensive TV series ever produced, trailing Amazon's Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power.

With the tepid reviews rolling out -- Rotten Tomatoes aggregation scored it at 54% --TV writer Alan Sepinwall had a story published in Rolling Stone, the day prior to the series' April 28 all-at-once binge drop, caustically headlined "Citadel is a $300 Million Disaster for Amazon."

Turns out, Sepinwall and the Penske pub weren't wrong.

We don't love Nielsen's weekly U.S. audience rankings of subscription streaming movies and shows for lots of reasons. But Nielsen's rankers, which provide viewership snapshots from a month ago, do deliver some insights.

And not once in the three weeks following Citadel's drop did the pricey six-part first season crack any of Nielsen's rankings. The research company did say that for the week of April 24-30, the show came close, garnering 306 million minutes of streaming in the U.S.

This suggest to us that a number of folks tuned in for the first couple of days and quickly checked out.

Again, Nielsen's rankers only account for U.S. viewing. And the series, parts of which were shot in the UK, and which stars Scottish stage actor Richard Madden alongside Indian actress Priyanka Chopra, did get picked up for a second season.

This perhaps suggests that performance in international regions was better. Or maybe Amazon is chasing good money after bad.