Breaking down Outlander season 3 and its ratings success

Alas, there was no Outlander season 3 ratings piece to write this week, but there is also a pretty good reason for that: There was no episode!

As you can imagine, it’s pretty hard to break down ratings when there are none to discuss, but there is a larger idea that is worth exploring leading up to “A. Malcolm” this weekend — the why of it all. Why are the ratings up to the extent that they are? Why this season instead of leading into season 2?

If the show was up just a small amount, it’d be a little bit easier to just shrug your shoulders and say that it really could be coincidental. Yet, that’s not what we are looking at here — we are talking about a SUBSTANTIAL increase in the show’s numbers. Outlander is averaging 1.53 million live viewers so far for season 3, up more than 40% from season 2. The increase in live viewers in the 18-49 demographic is even higher — 45%! (We know demo ratings don’t matter so much to premium cable outlets, but it’s still interesting.) Very few shows get this sort of year-to-year increases, and when it happens, it’s worth diving into why — after all, other networks can look at this as they try to learn lessons and build their own programming out for the future.

Here’s just a small slice of what we’re seeing as contributing factors for Outlander season 3.

1. An exemplary marketing campaign – Exposure for Outlander season 3 was at an all-time high, and we do think that this brought some new viewers into the series. Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe were on talk shows, there were live events in New York and Los Angeles (not to mention San Diego Comic-Con), and many big publications had lengthy interviews with several cast members. There was more publicity for the show than probably any other in Starz history — for those who wonder if all this press is worth it, we’re seeing the results in the ratings.

2. The move to Sunday – You can’t ignore this. There are more viewers around on Sundays than Saturdays. That’s been proven time and time again. However, are there this many more viewers when you consider how devoted the following is for Outlander in the first place? We don’t want to cite strictly a change of night given that there is a lot of competition out there on Sunday nights and viewers are still choosing Outlander.

3. The long layoff – If you’ve got a bad show, you lose viewers when you’re off the air for so long. However, great shows tend to add viewers, and as painful as the Droughtlander was it was a significant aid to casual viewers catching up. Remember that there were 29 episodes prospective viewers had to watch before getting into season 3, so they needed the time to catch up! Luckily, they seem to have done that.

4. The time of year – do think that there is a difference sometimes between airing in the spring and the fall, especially since by the time fall rolls around there are more people who’ve already done a lot of fun stuff outside and are settling in for cooler weather. Look at ratings across the board — they’re almost always stronger in the fall.

Why do you think Outlander season 3 is drawing better ratings?

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