‘Better Call Saul’ episode 2 ratings: Still solid, but honeymoon ends quickly

Clearly, not every show can be “The Walking Dead” and score big ratings every single week. As a matter of fact, “Better Call Saul” cannot even be the final season of “Breaking Bad.”

For its second episode on Monday night, the Bob Odenkirk series saw its numbers fall pretty dramatically to a 1.6 rating and 3.4 million viewers; to approximate, each one of these is more or less half of what it received for its premiere after the zombie drama on AMC. Should the network be particularly upset about these ratings? We would not say so, and for a number of different reasons.

1. This series does not have that same narrative engine yet of the end of “Breaking Bad.” While an extremely strong series so far creatively, there is not necessarily a pressing need for anyone to watch live. We are firmly entrenched in the DVR era at the moment, and many “Breaking Bad” fans only started watching after blowing through the first four seasons on Netflix.

2. This is also what happens when you are not leading out of a show with more than 15 million viewers. While there is not a huge crossover seemingly between “The Walking Dead” and almost any show not named “Talking Dead,” it at least is a great platform to promote your premiere.

3. Monday nights are a completely new animal to AMC. Within the past several years, they have only programmed Sundays and Saturdays (in the case of “Hell on Wheels”) for original programming. They did try Thursday for a while with their unscripted series, which for the most part have all been canceled. (“Comic Book Men” is the sole exception.)

We’re going to keep track of these ratings all season, but do keep in mind here that the series has already been renewed for a second season. With that in mind, this is a novelty study at best.

Photo: AMC