‘Longmire’ season 2, ‘The Glades’ season 4 get off to strong starts

Who says that Memorial Day has to be bad for television audiences? While this was a pretty major excuse for some network shows to suffer somewhat on the holiday, the return of two popular A&E series managed to draw ratings that were higher than even last year, and that is in spite of them airing on what is a pretty difficult night.

In beginning with “The Glades,” the fourth-season premiere was watched by 3.3 million viewers, which is an increase of 6% over last year. This is a show that has been around for a little while, so any growth that this show manages to get at this point has to be viewed as a positive. Meanwhile, “Longmire’s” season 2 premiere had a pretty impressive showing all its own, as there was a grand total of 4.3 million people watching (a 5% increase from the series premiere).

While we do not have exact figures in the 18-49 demo right now, we know that “Longmire” did at least out-deliver what it did for the series premiere, and A&E should be happy with the numbers. With that being said, “Bates Motel” from earlier this year does post stronger demo numbers, even if it does not have the same sort of impressive viewer figures as what we’re seeing from these two shows.

“Longmire” and “The Glades” will be back again next Monday, and they could potentially do even better, given that there will be no holiday on the horizon, and they will not be forced into competing with anything additional programming except for the finale of “Revolution.”

Did you catch the premiere for either show? If you want to hear the “Longmire” cast speak out on the story ahead, all you have to do is visit the link here.

Photo: A&E