Vikings season 5 premiere ratings down, but still impressive
The two-hour premiere on History Wednesday night averaged in total a 0.6 rating in the 18-49 demographic as well as just under 2.2 million viewers. When you compare some of these figures to the performance of many other shows across the board at the moment, we’d consider it to be very positive — it’s hard for any cable series to amass large numbers these days, especially since we have a feeling that many Vikings viewers aren’t dedicated to much other History programming – and with that, they may not have been even aware that the show was coming on the air.
The bad news is that these ratings are down fairly substantially from the 0.8 rating that the show generated for its season 4 premiere back in February 2016. It’s also down about 9% in total viewers. Versus the average season 4 rating the Vikings premiere is down about 13% in the demo and 4% in the viewers; the latter is a pretty strong indicator that even though there are many viewers out there who still love the show, that it is skewing a little bit older than it has in past years.
Remember that there are so many more viewers for this show than are clear in these preliminary numbers, mostly because of the fact.
In terms of the long-term future of Vikings there is absolutely nothing to worry about given that it already has a season 6 renewal. The ratings here are more of a measuring stick in terms of how popular the show is right now, and maybe these are used as somewhat of a gauge to whether or not there will be a season 7. We’re worried already about season 6 being the show’s last, though there is not anything out there at the moment to confirm that. We just know that at some point, Michael Hirst and History will probably choose to close off the story of Ragnar and his sons. There is only so much accurate story out there within the historical record.
What do you think about the latest Vikings season 5 premiere numbers? Be sure to share in the comments!
Also, be sure to check out our full review for the Vikings season 5 premiere, if you missed it, over here. We will be heavily covering Vikings all season with reviews, previews and ratings pieces. Meanwhile, like CarterMatt on Facebook for more insight on this show plus others we cover. (Photo: History.)