At one point it seemed like it could have been Netflix’s answer to Game of Thrones. Now, it’s being displaced after a few days on Netflix’s Top 10 list by a stand-up comedy special. The Witcher is not in a great place.

Yes, it’s true that season 3 of The Witcher did debut at the top of Netflix’s Top 10 list after it launched, but it didn’t even last a full week there, despite extremely minimal competition. The other top-placing shows on the list have been Suits after a move to Netflix syndication, a documentary about American Gladiators and season 2 of Idiocracy-adjacent series Is It Cake?

Now, The Witcher has been dethroned by Tom Segura: Sledgehammer a one hour comedy special. Segura apparently has five other comedy specials on Netflix besides this one, which started in 2014. I guess he’s been a fixture on the service for a while, but now he’s reaching new levels of popularity.

While Netflix has not yet released viewership numbers for The Witcher season 3 (only the first five episodes have been released out of eight so far), indications are that they’re not great. User scores for season 3 are lower than the last two seasons, and the decision to split the season up and end on its worst episode of the season does not seem to be paying off.

Of course, many people are ditching the show because they know it’s about to lose Henry Cavill as Geralt, who will be replaced by Liam Hemsworth in the already-renewed seasons 4 and 5. This led Netflix to produce a hard-to-believe tweet on the official Witcher account which advertised a (fake) ad campaign that reads “Yes, he’s still Geralt in season 3 of The Witcher.”

It’s meant to be a funny joke but it comes off as desperate for viewership, plus it is 100% completely dunking on Liam Hemsworth, the poor guy who didn’t ask for any of this, as acknowledgement from the official account that everyone wants Cavill and no one wants him. I predict viewership for seasons 4 and 5 is going to be disastrous.

It’s really hard to believe how much this show has fallen after a shockingly good debut with high watch numbers and satisfied fans who mostly approved of the series and especially Cavill’s turn as Geralt. Now, mismanagement of Cavill causing him to leave and departures from the source material have turned it into…this. It’s probably one of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen Netflix make.

Update (7/6): If you need some evidence about how things are trending for The Witcher, you can look at audience scores for the seasons as time has gone on, as fans are getting madder and madder across the seasons.

Season 1 of The Witcher had an inverse critic swing, 68% from critics, okay not great, but a surprisingly good 89% from fans, especially fans who were bound to be more harsh than usual given their connection to the books and video games, and skepticism of the project in general.

Season 2 is where things started to unravel. Despite a very high 95% from critics, fans, along with Henry Cavill it seems, did not appreciate changes from the books, and the score dropped to a 57%.

Now? Season 3, again, is reviewing well with critics at an 85%, but fans are reaching rock bottom. A 33% is one of the lowest audience scores for a major production on Netflix I can remember seeing. We are getting close to Resident Evil 26% territory, which was one of the worst. Even “bad” shows rarely get this low on the audience side.

To me, this doesn’t necessarily feel like a true indicator of the season’s quality. I’d argue that it’s mostly better than season 2, and pretty good except for the last episode. But this feels like protest review bombing for Henry Cavill’s upcoming departure from the series. Usually review bombing can have its roots in racism or sexism for projects like this, but this is not in that realm, and is instead about Netflix fumbling Cavill and causing him to want to leave.

Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. Subscribe to my free weekly content round-up newsletter, God Rolls.

Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.