Ratings: ‘Bates Motel’ goes into season 2 with solid figures

In looking at the ratings for “Bates Motel,” the people over at A&E have to be rather thrilled right about now. This is a network known mostly these days for “Duck Dynasty” all around the clock, and their two prominent scripted shows in “The Glades” and “Longmire” both air during the summer. This “Psycho” prequel-of-sorts could have been a gigantic flop, especially since it spent most of its first season airing against the trifecta of doom known as “Castle,” “Revolution,” and “Hawaii Five-0.”

The good news for Monday’s finale was that the competition was lesser with some of the bigger shows being over for now. The other good news? It ended on a high note. A 1.2 rating in the 18-49 demographic is fantastic for a cable show in its first season, and the total viewers ticked upward to close to 2.7 million. The series already had a second-season renewal, so there was no reason whatsoever to worry about that.

As for the future of the series, Norman Bates presumably killing his undressed teacher is a game-changer, as it shows that the inner demon within him is fully awakened now after ten episodes of it starting to rise to the surface, and the question is how quickly others will find out?

From a ratings perspective, we also anticipate big things. One of the real advantages to having short seasons is that it allows for new viewers to jump in, burn through the first 10 episodes in just a few days, and be ready to sign up. Look at “True Blood,” “Game of Thrones,” or “Breaking Bad” as examples of shows that were able to build off of first seasons of 6-12 episodes.

Are you thrilled with the “Bates Motel” numbers? If you still want more (and we totally understand this, given that we do as well), all you have to do in order to read some season 2 scoop is visit the link here.

Photo: BBC