Outlander season 4 premiere ratings down, at least in live measurements
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With all of that said, viewership in this measurement was down, certainly a little bit more than we hoped or expected. The premiere episode entitled “America the Beautiful” ended up drawing 1.08 million viewers, down substantially from the 1.49 million live viewers who watched the season 3 premiere, and also the season 3 average of just over 1.5 million. Seeing the show finish where it did here is somewhat of a shock given that Starz had a pretty robust promotional campaign for the series, one that included print and internet advertising that went along with multiple television appearances from the cast and special screenings at New York Comic-Con and in Savannah, Georgia.
The biggest takeaway from the premiere ratings is that, more than likely, viewers have less and less interest in checking out the show live, largely because they don’t have to. Many viewers who can afford to subscribe to Starz can also afford other ways to watch it beyond just sitting down at 8:00 p.m. Eastern time in front of the TV. While we’re not sure if the 400,000 viewers the series shed from the season 3 premiere all collectively moved over to watching on the app or on DVR after the fact, some of them most likely did (after all – who wants to wait even more after already sitting through a droughtlander?). Even if the series did ultimately lose some viewers between seasons, it drives so many subscriptions to Starz that it is still a great success because of that.
Hopefully, Starz will release some consolidated viewing figures for the premiere in a few days, ones that include app views, DVR numbers, repeats, and more. That will give you a more-accurate assessment of who is actually watching.
Outlander season 4 has many more episodes to go this season, so you better believe that we’ll be watching it closely. Make note that with premium cable series they don’t care about the 18-49 demographic. There are no advertisers and with that, age demos don’t matter.
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What’s your takeaway from the Outlander season 4 premiere ratings? Be sure to share some of your thoughts below. (Photo: Starz.)