Luther Roscovitz (Klaas Heufer-Umlauf, left), Charlie Wagner (Leonie Benesch) and Captain Alban (Oliver Masucci, right) in the series adaptation of “The Swarm”.
Photo: ZDF and Fabio Lovino, Fabio Lovino. All rights reserved.
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Despite mediocre reviews, the series adaptation of “The Swarm” started with strong ratings: A total of 6.82 million viewers watched the first two episodes of the dystopian sci-fi series on Monday evening, March 6th, 2023 on TV. The market share was 24.4 percent. And that’s not all: According to DWDL.de, the first episode had already been viewed by more than 2.6 million people in the ZDF media library.
Despite this huge success at the beginning, interest in “The Swarm” seems to be waning quickly: According to reports from “Meedia” the third episode of a total of eight episodes was only watched by 4.56 million on TV, and in the younger age group of 14 to 49-year-olds it was only 0.47 million people. For comparison: the day before, the second episode had ratings of 0.65 million people.
The series event “Der Schwarm” is one of the most expensive German productions of all time: it is said to have cost 44 million euros. After the first broadcast of the series, the bestselling author Frank Schätzing expressed his displeasure with the film adaptation at the beginning of February 2023: When asked what bothered him about the series, the 65-year-old told “Zeit” that “it falls short of its potential. Some things are ready for the cinema, others emotional and talkative relationship box TV.
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