Outlander season 5: How could it have the best ratings yet?
Before we move forward in discussing it, it’s important to note that even if season 5 turns out to be the highest-rated yet for Starz, it may be hard for even us to be fully aware of it. The live ratings for a show like this are archaic, especially when so many viewers are tech-savvy and are watching on the app as early as midnight leading up to each episode airing. Yet, think about things this way — if Outlander starts to shatter some ratings records, Starz will issue press releases about it. We will hear about it, even if you don’t see the data in traditional ratings reports. With this in mind, we’re here to present four different reasons why we could see season 5 become the biggest season that we’ve had a chance to see for the show to date.
1. Subject matter – Let’s face it — stories about the Revolutionary War are incredibly popular in America, and it’s not altogether hard to understand why. It’s a part of history that so many people study in school! You’re already going to have viewers who are incredibly familiar with this part of history, and if the show is promoted for being action-packed and political in all the best ways, maybe you get more viewers in turn because of that.
2. Netflix – This could actually prove to be the biggest boost to the series’ overall viewership by a mile. We reported earlier this week about some of the most-watched shows on Netflix, and one of them is a premium-cable show that has some earlier seasons deposited there in Shameless. We know that the ratings for that show on Showtime have improved since the series was first placed on the service, and such could also be the case here. While the first two seasons are coming to Netflix this month, there’s no guarantee that season 3 will be anytime soon! Viewers may have to subscribe to Starz to check out any more, or to watch the show live when it premieres. Not every Netflix viewer will do so, but even if just 10% do, that’s a big win for the network.
3. Plenty of time to catch up – Hopefully, Starz keeps promoting the show and it can make the best of what is, at the moment, an extremely long hiatus from the end of one season to start of the next one. This could aid this show, especially since it did ones like Breaking Bad when it was in the thick of its super-long break from the air.
4. Promotion – This is where everything will land on Starz. We do think that there will be more viewers than ever intrigued by season 5 judging from all of the stuff we’ve already discussed here. The onus, ultimately, is going to fall on them making sure viewers outside their core network audience are aware of when it comes back on the air — they’ve done some great campaigns before, but they’ll need to do one here that emphasizes a part of the love story, but also a sense of adventure and the build-up to the American Revolution.
What are you the most excited to see when it comes to Outlander season 5, and do you think it could be the most-popular season so far? Share in the comments.
Photo: Starz