Severance co-creator Ben Stiller has no idea how many people have watched the show, and thinks that’s “really weird”.
During an interview with Decider, the 56-year-old filmmaker revealed that, much like the fictional macrodata in Severance, he has no idea what Apple’s numbers really mean.
“No, it’s hard,” he said, when asked if Apple provided him with concrete viewing figures for his show. “They don’t tell you the numbers. It’s really weird. So, you get these graphs and charts, like I said, that have like peaks and valleys. But you don’t know what the baseline is. I guess [it] could be like, based on 100 people or could be like, 200 million people. We don’t know.”
Severance made waves when Season 1 hit Apple TV+ earlier this year – a workplace drama that puts a sinister high-tech twist on the notion of work/life balance. The show follows a group of “severed” employees who have undergone a medical procedure to separate their work and home life memories… and explores how this procedure affects them both in and outside of the office.
But while it’s seen rave reviews and a buzz of discussion online, it seems that nobody, including creator Ben Stiller, has any idea how well it performed. Apple doesn’t provide viewing figures to consumers, press, or it seems even the shows’ creators.
“They basically say, ‘Yeah, this is doing well,’” he said. “You’re trying to interpret what they’re saying. But they’re straightforward. It’s just that’s how, I guess, all the streamers do it. How do you find out? I’m curious how you find out.”
“The fun thing was going to [San Diego] Comic-Con and having a full house for a panel and seeing all those people there,” he added. “That was the first time I was like, ‘Oh, wow, this is really like… There are people who are really watching this, like human beings to connect with on it.’”
Severance has already been renewed for a second season and has entered the cultural landscape as one of 2022’s most talked about new shows.
“And that’s what I felt was really fortunate about the show,” said Stiller. “Maybe also the timing of when we came out in terms of how people are approaching our work and those questions. The fact that it’s in the conversation, just culturally, it’s really been fun to be a part of.”
There may be no escape in Severance, but there’s no indication what the numbers mean, either. Both in and outside of the show, the data remains inscrutable… and that feels kinda appropriate, really.
Want to find out more about Severance? Check out our review of Severance Season 1 as well as our dive into the show’s season finale.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.