Rings of Power: Will the LOtR premier live up to its £77m price tag?

Since Amazon bought the TV rights for Lord of The Rings back in 2017, fans of the fantasy series have been waiting to see what The Rings Of Power can add to one of the biggest movie and literary franchises of all time.

Factoring in the $250million Amazon spent on the rights, the total cost of bringing this latest saga from Middle Earth to our living rooms has set the company back an eye-watering $715million (£618.8m).

That equals a staggering $89.3million (£77.2m) per episode, which rather puts a bit of pressure on the premier to hit the right notes with fans and critics alike. Only last week, the season premiere for the Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon received record-breaking viewers for a series premiere, and a very high IMDb rating of 8.9/10.

Of course, being spin-offs from two of the most successful movie franchises and TV shows ever (not forgetting the books as well) helps when it comes to picking up viewers. But not all shows get this helping hand.

With this in mind, the team at Betway have looked back at TV shows with impressively high IMDb ratings on their initial episodes.

Chernobyl – 9.4/10
Rated as one of the best TV series of all time on IMDb, the first episode of this biopic miniseries on the 1986 Chernobyl disaster is rated a whopping 9.4/10 on IMDb – the highest-rated series premiere of all time.

Fargo – 9.3/10
This prequel to the 1996 movie of the same name documents various chronicles of deception, intrigue and murder in and around frozen Minnesota leading back to the town Fargo. The first episode of the 8.9 overall rated series has a first episode rated 9.3/10.

Mr Robot – 9.2/10
Mr Robot focuses on Elliot, a brilliant but highly unstable young cyber-security engineer and vigilante hacker, who becomes a key figure in a complex game of global dominance. The show rated 8.6/10 overall has a great first episode with a score of 9.2.

This Is Us – 9.2/10
With the final episode airing earlier this year, This Is Us is a heartwarming and emotional story about a unique set of triplets, their struggles and their wonderful parents. The overall 8.7 rated series has a premiere first episode with a 9.2 rating.

Breaking Bad – 9.0/10
This groundbreaking AMC series that focuses on chemistry teacher-turned-drug lord Walter White and his sidekick Jesse Pinkman is one of the all-time highest-rated shows. The show overall has a whopping 9.5/10 rating with the premiere having a rating of 9.0/10.

Game of Thrones – 8.9/10
The original George R. R. Martin-inspired fantasy TV sensation before House of the Dragon that focuses on the great houses of Westeros as war brews was once one of the highest-rated TV shows until the disappointing final series. It still holds up as one of the best with an overall 9.2/10 rating despite the final series, and the premiere is a great 8.9/10.

Sherlock – 8.9/10
The BBC drama that shows a modern-day adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories from the late 19th-early 20th century was a hugely popular and well-received series throughout its 4 seasons. With the overall show scoring 9.1, the first episode is an impressive 8.9/10.

True Detective – 8.9/10
True Detective is a seasonal anthology series in which police investigations unearth the personal and professional secrets of those involved, both within and outside the law. The first episode of season 1 rates an impressive 8.9/10 with the overall show scoring the same.

Twin Peaks – 8.9/10
From the weird and wonderful mind of David Lynch, Twin Peaks focuses on an idiosyncratic FBI agent investigating the murder of a young woman in the even more idiosyncratic town of Twin Peaks. The cult series has an overall rating of 8.8/10 and the first episode boasting an impressive 8.9.

Westworld – 8.8/10
The mind-bending HBO psychological thriller Westworld centres around a world at the intersection of the near future and the reimagined past, in which every human appetite can be indulged without consequence in the theme park Westworld. The show boasts an 8.5 rating with the acclaimed first season having an 8.8/10 rated premiere.