‘Hell on Wheels’ season 4 ratings slide in week two; is it still safe?

The ratings are in for the second episode of “Hell on Wheels” season 4, and just as expected, they are not as pristine as what we saw for the premiere.

But is it something to legitimately worry about just yet? We wouldn’t go that far. With 1.98 million viewers, the show lost almost half a million of its live viewership from the premiere. This is also the lowest viewer count since the third episode of last season. It also lost 40% of its 18-49 demo audience from the premiere in posting a 0.3.

In the end, though, this is still better than much of AMC’s programming as of late, and the thing you really have to remember here with “Hell on Wheels” is that live ratings do not fully matter as much as the live+3 ones do. Given that so many people record the show on Saturday nights, the biggest test is seeing if that number can stay reasonably consistent from one week to the next. If that happens, we really cannot see there being anything to worry about for the time being.

One thing that will especially help this show as time goes by is simply the arrival of fall, and the lessening of a desire for some folks to go outside. Sure, there will be some competition here and there from college football, but given that this is a regional thing and different games are on at different times, we never really see this as a major threat to take down Cullen Bohannon and company.

For more of our own “Hell on Wheels” news, including some analysis and also some previews for what lies ahead, just be sure to visit the link here. Also, you can sign up today in the event that you want some more news on all we cover now via our CarterMatt Newsletter.

Photo: AMC