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The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power features a lot of unlikely alliances that lead to incredible results: Hobbits and wizards, elves and dwarves, Elrond and, er, his future mother-in-law – they've all accomplished great things while working together. Fittingly, Rings of Power has been part of an unlikely duo that boosted Amazon Prime's streaming numbers, pairing with none other than the NFL's Thursday Night Football.

Yes, you read that correctly – Amazon Prime viewers are lining up in droves to what are essentially the nerds' and jocks' tables of streaming (respectively), to the tune of a September viewership increase of 12%. The story comes to us via Deadline, who also points out that this was the largest spike for any streamer in that month.

This is obviously good news for stockholders at Amazon, but it also could be good news for those eagerly waiting for a season 3 announcement. Remember, despite all the posturing online, Amazon Prime has not officially greenlit a Rings of Power season 3. However, in a recent interview with Variety, head of Amazon MGM Studios Jennifer Salke said that "We’ll continue to make [Rings of Power] as long as we see global customers loving it and watching it to the point where – it is a business."

"Obviously," she continued, "we need a large amount of people showing up. And there are a large amount of people, so there’s no debate about whether or not the show will continue."

September's viewership numbers are proof positive that people are tuning into Amazon's Lord of the Rings series, something we can be sure of despite the still not-100%-official statements about Rings of Power season 3.

What's certainly unknown is if the unlikely pair of Rings of Power and the NFL boosted each other's viewership, though it's not out of the realm of possibility. In that case, who knows? If Rings of Power season 3 does happen, we Tolkien fans might (at least in small part) have the NFL to thank.

'Fantasy football,' indeed.

Whether you're Shirefolk, Elven, Dwarven, or something else, there's a good reason to love Lord of the Rings. We do! With that in mind, we have a dragon's horde of goodies for you from a Lord of the Rings reading guide, a Lord of the Rings watch guide, details on the upcoming animated film Lord of the Rings: The War of Rohirrim, a full the Lord of the Rings reunion panel you can watch, how the OG Hobbit actors stay in touch every day on a groupchat, and the true message of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, according to Gimli himself - John Rhys-Davies.