Outlander season 5 & Power season 6: The case for pairing them together

Outlander season 4

As you may know at this point, Outlander season 5 is slated to premiere in early 2020. Starz hasn’t specified a date beyond that, but filming is underway.

Meanwhile, Starz has also confirmed that the final season of Power is going to air in two batches. The first of them is going to air coming up on August 25, and the second will premiere in January. How this matters is that it could influence the timeline for Outlander. There’s a case to be made that the Caitriona Balfe – Sam Heughan drama will premiere in late February/early March after the run of Power is over. That way, Starz has a hit show on the air in one way or another for the better part of the first four or five months out of the year.

Yet, is there a case for airing the two shows at the same time and trying to premiere Outlander in January? Within this piece, let’s try to lay out a case as to why that could be worthwhile.

1. Ratings – Yes, we do recognize that Outlander and Power are different audiences, but since they are the network’s two biggest hits, isn’t pairing them up a way to make them even bigger? If Power viewers stick around and watch Outlander after the fact, for example, it could help to boost Outlander and its live viewership, which did decline in season 4. (This doesn’t mean that its overall viewership necessarily fell, though, with Starz making episodes available far in advance.)

Also, Outlander premiering early in the year means that they may be able to take advantage of an influx of winter viewers. There are a lot around in cooler months.

2. A shorter hiatus – This just seems obvious, no? The smaller the wait for more Outlander, the better!

3. Building up another show down the road – Think of this as Starz playing the long game for whatever show they want to premiere in the spring. Outlander season 5 will have more episodes than Power will in the new year. With that, Starz could air these two shows and use them to promote a new series coming about 6-7 episodes into Outlander’s run. At that point, that show could get maybe a larger premiere than it would just premiering alongside Outlander, where there wouldn’t be as much time to promote it.

4. More teasers faster – The earlier this show premieres, the faster Starz will promote it!

Should Outlander season 5 and Power season 6 be paired together?

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Photo: Starz

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