I don't know if assumptions on psychology or philosophy are particularly important here. What that other poster mentioned, and I agree with them, is studies that show stats on recidivism and whether they support that approach or not.

That doesn't really answer my question about how much viewership dropped (or not) from the first few episodes.

Of course people watched the first episodes. Everybody including me was hyped or at least curious about a LOTR show. It doesn't mean those people are enjoying and sticking with it now that they see what the show really is.

I'm very curious to see numbers for each episodes, if we eventually get that.

I'm curious, do we have data on the latest episodes' viewership? Asking because everyone around me is slowly dropping the show even if they were interested at first.