How does ‘Hell on Wheels’ season 4 compare to a ‘Walking Dead’ marathon?

Hell on Wheels -Maybe to some out there, this will feel like a useless article to write. After all, is there any use comparing repeats of one enormously-popular show on a Saturday night to new episodes of something else … especially when the two have such different audiences?

We would argue that there is merit, mostly because we were very curious about this past weekend on AMC. Ever since moving “Hell on Wheels” to Saturday night, the show has done remarkably well in viewership, and establishing that there is a chance at success on a night that is otherwise considered to be a graveyard for shows. You just have to find a strong enough show to convince audiences to tune in.

But is the show really that valuable, and could AMC producer similar ratings without it around? Here is what we figured out, using what is admittedly a very terrible sample size of a weekend. Ratings are via TVbythenumbers.

  • For the three episodes of the “Walking Dead” marathon that aired in primetime Saturday, the show averaged around 1.3 million viewers and a 0.4 in the 18-49 demographic. We do wonder if there was a small percentage in here who tuned in at 9:00 p.m., thinking that a new “Hell on Wheels” would be on.
  • Meanwhile, “Hell on Wheels” has been averaging over 2.13 million viewers live this season, and has pulled in similar demo numbers most of the season. Its most-recent new episode had 2.26 million watching.

There are two other caveats here to consider with “The Walking Dead,” including that this is the highest-rated show on all TV, and if these were repeats of any other show, they’d almost surely be considerably lower. Meanwhile, this marathon is a special event, and regular repeats would most likely not fare so well.

While we cannot say that we came to a definitive conclusion based on the same size, it remains pretty evident that “Hell on Wheels” holds a great deal of value to AMC on Saturdays. It gets a large crowd tuning in live, and this show is a considerable performer in live+3 and live+7 data. While there is no word yet on a season 5, we’re still feeling confident about it. Seeing the ratings stay steady and even at times increase throughout this season give us a reason to be.

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