With no Outlander tonight, let’s look towards the schedule, the future

Is Outlander new tonight on Starz? Some of you may remember the answer to this question; for everyone else, we’re here with a refresher!

Alas, the network is taking a week off and will return with new episodes on October 22. We’ve gone through some of the possible reasons for this in the past but one of the biggest ones seems just to be taking a moment to breathe between the first part of the story and the next. There is a natural divider that comes into place here — the first five episodes featured Jamie and Claire apart, and the remaining ones are meant to feature the two parties together embarking on a brand-new adventure in their lives.

Is Starz airing an extended finale of Survivor’s Remorse tonight? They are, but we do believe that if the network really had wanted to schedule things out to get the full lineup on the air they could have. There is a marathon of Outlander episodes airing leading up to that aforementioned finale tonight, so you can check out some of those if you happened to fall behind the past few weeks. (Hey, it happens! Fall is a busy time.)

Now, let’s spend a few paragraphs looking ahead given that there are still so many episodes still to go this season! “A. Malcolm” (read more about it here) on October 22 is going to feature the Print Shop scene so many fans have been looking forward to seeing. Not only that, but it’s run time is longer than the average episode. You’re getting a little more time to make up for having to wait that extra week. Think of that as a reward for your patience.

Beyond that there are no more extended episodes announced as of yet (it wouldn’t shock us if the finale is longer), but there are no more hiatuses. Is that subject to change? Certainly, but with the Outlander finale currently scheduled for December 10 that feels like the right time to close the door on season 3. You don’t want to run the show too close to the holidays to the point that many viewers out there have some other things to do beyond watching the show live.

We do realize that there are many people out there unhappy with Starz over the hiatus but we’d be surprised if it has an adverse effect on the ratings. Typically if you’re a quality show viewers will find you, and as we discussed recently the extra week may help to get even more casual viewers on board before the Print Shop happens.

Ultimately, remember that even with an Outlander hiatus are coverage isn’t slowing down! Season 4 is in production, and our latest CarterMatt update on the subject of filming is over here. There are still many things to look forward to that will also be announced/released on “A. Malcolm” in the coming days.

Meanwhile, like us on Facebook to get even more insight on this show and others we cover right away. (Photo: Starz.)