Outlander Season 5, Episode 2 ratings: Don’t worry all that much about the dips

Outlander -- Courtesy of STARZ
Outlander -- Courtesy of STARZ

Outlander Season 5, Episode 2 viewer ratings are in and there is a dip. However, don’t worry all that much about it for now.

The Live + Same Day ratings are in for Outlander Season 5, Episode 2. There is a dip in the audience again, but the demo ticks up. However, please don’t worry about these figures right now!

I will say that I’ll continue to look at the ratings even though they don’t matter all that much. They give us as fans an indication of how many people are watching the show, but the figures are misleading. They only give us a partial view. STARZ doesn’t report the figures of those who watch through the app, which means there are millions of views not counted by Neilsen.

TV Series Finale reports the Live + Same Day ratings based on those who watch on the STARZ channel. The second episode saw a small tick up in the demo to 0.13. However, it saw a dip in the total audience by 3.4% to 0.787 million.

It’s often a concern when fans spot the dips in their favorite TV shows. If this show was on a primetime network, I would tell you to be concerned. The Neilsen ratings are used by broadcast networks for the sake of advertisers. If there aren’t many people watching, especially in the demo, the networks are going to look for other shows that will work better. After all, advertisers won’t pay as much or will walk completely if they’re not getting in front of enough eyeballs.

STARZ doesn’t have to worry about that. I’ve talked about it in the past, so I’m not going to repeat myself. You can check out which ratings truly matter for a show like Outlander here.

Something that’s worth noting is that Comcast and Frontier have both removed the STARZ channel from the regular package. Viewers now need to pay extra, and some have opted to pay STARZ directly instead of play Comcast’s game. That will directly affect the live ratings, so it’s a good thing that STARZ isn’t going to look at them all that much.

Even if STARZ did consider the live ratings heavily, there is some excellent news. Outlander is the second-most popular show from this season. It’s the most popular show out of those still running (Power ended earlier this month). STARZ wouldn’t cancel it’s best show; it’s not as questionable as SHOWTIME with Ray Donovan!

Do you worry about the future of Outlander? Please don’t if it’s based on the live ratings. I’ll continue to share them, but more as just a glimpse since we don’t get to know STARZ’s actual figures through the app.

Outlander continues on Sundays at 8/7c on STARZ.