Ratings Preview: Will Counterpart season 2 benefit from Outlander lead-in?
If you look back at the first season, there are two big takeaways: JK Simmons was fantastic, and the numbers weren’t as good as you would hope. Season 1 averaged only 370,000 live viewers weekly and while we understand that this is just a small sample of overall viewers, there’s still a proportional quality to it. Shows like Outlander and Power on Starz, for example, have posted ratings that are more than double this show’s season 1 average just in terms of live ratings alone.
With all of this in mind, it feels like, on paper, Starz made a super-smart decision in opting to place Counterpart directly after Outlander on their schedule. This is the strongest lead-in that the show has had so far, and it’s also not something that the network really does all that often. There aren’t too many examples out there of Starz placing one drama series after the next and this shows both the value that they are ascribing to Outlander and also the faith that they have in Counterpart. They clearly believe in the series and want to figure out a way to get some more people on board as potential viewers. The key struggle here is obviously just coming up with the best way to properly do that. They’re at least allowing it to premiere at a time in which more subscribers are probably out there already on the network, so the hope here is most likely that a small percentage of Outlander fans will either stick around and watch an episode after their favorite show, or that this will at least give season 2 some more exposure on the app.
For now, our feeling is that all of this should help Counterpart get a nice little boost, especially since we think that it airing across the holiday season is going to help it on some level. It’s going to allow the series to find somewhat-more of an audience than the series would have previously and with that in mind, help to get it a season 3 down the road.
Let’s face it: We’re in a hard environment these days for new shows, even ones that are of the highest quality. You have to find a way to get viewers on board with watching them and, beyond just that, you also have to figure out a way in which to ensure that they keep watching rather than a number of the other shows that are out there.
Related – Be sure to get some more news regarding Outlander, including a preview for the next new episode
Do you think that the ratings for Counterpart are going to be aided greatly by the series airing after Outlander? Be sure to share right now in the attached comments. (Photo: Starz.)