Outlander season 5 episode 2 ratings stay close to premiere

It was hard to predict what the Outlander season 5 episode 2 ratings were going to be in advance, mostly for a couple of different reasons. Take, for starters, the fact that shows tend to fall in the numbers after the premiere … but the premiere may have been lower than expected ratings because it was available on the app a couple of days early. With that in mind, we wondered if episode 2 would post either higher numbers than the premiere, or at least live viewership that was just about even.

(Before we continue, standard ratings article caveat — we’re only talking here about live+same-day ratings for the 8:00 p.m. broadcast on Starz. These numbers do not include app streams, DVR viewings the next day, or international viewership.)

In the end, Outlander season 5 episode 2 drew close to 790,000 live viewers — a tiny drop from the premiere, but a drop nonetheless. This suggests to us that there weren’t necessarily more people who watched early on the app because the premiere came out a couple of days early; instead, it tells us that the app audience is the app audience and there’s roughly the same crew of people watching on TV no matter what. Viewership for season 5 on Starz remains down versus season 4, but it’s hard to consider this a jaw-dropping surprise given that so many people are opting to watch early.

This is where we once again lament that there is no universal reporting of app streams/views after the fact, since that would give us a much larger picture of how Outlander is doing. (In live viewers, Outlander is still the second-biggest show on Starz behind Power.) For now, we’re left to take Starz at their word that they want it on the air for many years to come. It’s more fun obviously when the show is setting ratings records, but it may not be doing that at this point in its run. We just want it to maintain the viewership that it has at this point since that should be enough to make a season 7 possible.

What do you think about the Outlander season 5 episode 2 ratings?

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Photo: Starz