Why are Longmire season 6, The Punisher premiering same day?
When you think about the streaming service, they are now in a position of great luxury where they can launch a new original series almost on a weekly basis. Three years ago when Longmire was first revived, this was not something that was the case for them. There was a more in the way of open space for Netflix, and that was probably an asset in the show getting picked up — they had a hole in their subscriber base that Longmire and its key demographic helped to fill. We’re not sure that they have this same hole anymore, which is probably why you haven’t seen Netflix revive a outright-canceled series from broadcast/cable TV ever since. (We don’t consider shows like Gilmore Girls a cancellation.)
Today, the news came out (read our piece at CarterMatt about it here) that The Punisher is premiering on November 17, which is in turn the same exact date that Longmire is also coming out with its final seasons. As referenced earlier in this piece, this is not something that Netflix really tends to do with their major properties ever — it makes it harder to promote each one of them individually. We won’t sit here and say that this is a first-time thing, but with some of their top-tier shows you just don’t see it.
So why is this happening now? A part of that is due to The Punisher needing to change its premiere date from what it once was. The original plan was to launch the series this month alongside its panel event at New York Comic-Con, but the surprise release was pushed back after the tragedy in Las Vegas. Clearly Netflix wanted to get the show out there at some point this year and as a result of that, it was planted into the same spot as Longmire.
Can we read into this more that Netflix is probably not going to give Longmire the promotional push it deserves as a result of this? We certainly can, but we weren’t assuming that Longmire would be getting some huge push from them in the first place. You have to remember that this is a show in its final season, and one that has a bit of a self-starter audience. We could sit here and be bitter about the lack of Longmire promotion — we’ve certainly had our moments of that in the past — but this is an underdog show that lasted six seasons and Netflix never had to bring it on board in the first place. We can save our grumbles about it being overshadowed and just enjoy that we are getting the show at all.
What do you think about The Punisher and Longmire premiering on the same day? Is there something or nothing to this? Share in the comments below and check out the Longmire season 6 trailer here!
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