Should The Last Ship season 4 air earlier in the night?

We know that The Last Ship season 4 is done with filming leading up to the start of the season airing on TNT. Now, one of the biggest questions left is when this new season could premiere?

Do we have our own hopes for a potential date? Absolutely. The middle of June seems about right, since that is when past seasons of the show have premiered. The real question for us is if it would benefit both the show and the network to change the air time of the show from 9:00 p.m. Eastern to 8:00 p.m. this season?

The reasoning we have for this is mostly coming down to it’s competition with one show and one show only in Game of Thrones. The HBO saga is a ratings dynamo, and one that will likely suck up viewers like a vacuum when it premieres this July. No show in their right mind should want to air against it, especially one that is ad-generated like The Last Ship and needs live viewers in order to have a future. It’s a little different for it to air against the George R.R. Martin adaptation than a show like Power, which airs on Starz and can have viewers watching after the fact without any trouble. Speaking of which, The Last Ship shouldn’t want to air against Starz’s #1 series, either; it did so for most of last summer, but it only had to deal with Game of Thrones for a small percentage of its season.

We don’t see there being all that big of a downside to moving The Last Ship to 8:00, given that you can attract live viewers, and you don’t have to worry about people having to go to bed at 10:00 in order to work the next day. Maybe there are a small pool of viewers who are still enjoying the last part of the weekend at this time, but we don’t see the pool being more substantial than the crew who feel like they need to watch Game of Thrones live out of fear that their friends (and the internet) will otherwise spoil it for them.

All in all, consider this something for TNT to think about. They’ve still got a good bit of time to assess and figure out what they want to do for season 4. The show is already renewed for a season 5, so celebrate for now the fact that even with lower ratings, The Last Ship will stay afloat.

You can read more about the end of production for The Last Ship season 4 by heading over to the link here. Meanwhile, feel free to share some of your thoughts in the comments! (Photo: TNT.)