Outlander showrunner Matt B. Roberts has great news for fans. The season is one of the most-watched, despite the lower live Nielsen ratings.
There have been many debates over the ratings for Outlander Season 5, with many fans worried about the live Nielsen ratings. Well, it turns out that the season is one of the most-watched.
Showrunner Matt B. Roberts took to Twitter ahead of the Season 5 finale to thank fans. He made a note that it’s one of the most-watched seasons, despite the Nielsen live ratings showing it to be the lowest watched. This makes one thing extremely clear for fans: the Nielsen ratings mean absolutely nothing for the show.
This is something we’ve been saying for some time. In fact, we stopped sharing the ratings for the season as they just weren’t accurate. The ratings kept dropping despite the popularity on social media. With Roberts’ tweet, it’s clear that the ratings aren’t all that problematic that people keep making them out to be.
As a reminder, the Nielsen ratings are mostly for broadcast networks that rely on advertisers. STARZ’s viewers aren’t all counted in these ratings. Those who watch through the app directly don’t get included in the numbers. It’s only for those who watch live on the channel at the time the episode airs.
I don’t consider a season over until the finale airs. But I wanted to say thank you to the #outlander fans for making S5 one of the most watched seasons ever. Ansel Adams said “There are always two people in every photograph — the photographer and the viewer.”
— Matthew B Roberts (@TheMattBRoberts) May 9, 2020
That doesn’t mean those who watch on the app aren’t counted by STARZ. In fact, STARZ is going to be far more interested in those who watch through the app. And as I suspected, more people are watching through this method instead of waiting for the episodes to air live. Unless STARZ chooses to reveal the numbers, we don’t get to know them.
More viewers through the app isn’t surprising. A number of cable networks made STARZ an add-on and fans didn’t want to pay the prices. Instead, they opted to buy the STARZ app subscription. There would also have been newer subscribers due to the addition of the first three seasons on Netflix. Fans would have subscribed to STARZ to catch up on Season 4 and then watch Season 5 week after week.
I doubt there’s too much to worry about the future of Outlander just yet. Remember, Season 6 isn’t confirmed as the final season at all and talks for Season 7 have started but probably won’t be finalized closer to the time of Season 6 airing.
Outlander Seasons 1 to 5 are available on STARZ. Watch with Amazon Channels.