Preacher season 2 takes a scheduling risk; was it worth it?
Tonight, Preacher season 2 chose to air a new episode on AMC, and it leaves us wondering one question: Was it the right move?
Let’s leave the show’s entertainment value out of the debate for a minute here, given that if you watch the show — especially enough to watch it on the day before Independence Day. The larger issue here is AMC effectively throwing Jesse Custer and company to the wolves when it comes to the live+same day ratings. Maybe the numbers come out and prove us wrong, and the same people who all watched the show last week caught it this time around. However, we doubt it. With July 4 falling on a Tuesday, this was effectively an extended weekend for most people and they were off doing a wide array of stuff. There wasn’t much other new programming on tonight for a reason — beyond the lineup over at NBC and a few things scattered here and there on cable.
Will the ratings suffer for the decision to air a new episode tonight? Probably, but it’s fairly clear that for the time being, AMC is thinking beyond that. In offering up a new episode tonight, they’re believing in their DVR + streaming crowd to carry the day. Some of them will likely view advertisements, and if they’re hooked on the show, maybe the belief is that they will tune in to watch the show next week.
Then again, there is one other question that you have to wonder when it comes to this show.
Did AMC really have a choice in airing an episode tonight?
Maybe not so much, when you look at the way their schedule was constructed. Because of premiering the show just one week ago, it would’ve been very strange for them to have a two-hour premiere, and then be off for two weeks. That sort of inconsistency could have been more crippling than airing an episode tonight. In setting the premiere when they did, the network put themselves in a tough spot.
If there was a better solution that they could’ve made, it probably would’ve went a little something like this: Premiere the show after the July 4 holiday. Maybe they wouldn’t have been able to take advantage of the Fear the Walking Dead lead-in the same way that they did last week, but they wouldn’t have this sort of problem. They could’ve aired a two-hour premiere on July 10 and done a two-hour finale down the line to make up for some of the lost time.
The final verdict
We do think that it would’ve been prudent for AMC to not have to deal with the July 4 hassle, but in the end, what we really think matters is this: Whether or not Preacher is renewed. If the show comes back, then all of this is gravy. (It should come back without a problem.) If there is some sort of ratings dip or issue, everyone’s probably going to point to this as a problem.
What do you think: Should there have been an episode of Preacher season 2 airing tonight? Share in the comments!
Also, head over here to check out some of the recent ratings, and you can see a teaser for the next new episode below. (Photo: AMC.)