Retention cliff

On an audience retention graph, most of the line slopes down gently as people drift off. A cliff is different. The line drops a step at one timestamp, which means a block of the audience left within a few seconds of each other. Scrub to that point and watch what happens. It is usually something identifiable: an intro that ran long, or a promise the opening made and the middle failed to keep. The graph shows where viewers went. Finding out why means watching your own footage at that mark with the timeline in front of you.