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[Adam Sadler]

Damn, second behind GoT? A lot of people have been telling me to get into it. The lack of coverage doesn't surprise me that much though if I'm being honest

 

[Sheroking]

Pretty sure Flash, Arrow, and Riverdale get lots of buzz. More than Supergirl did when she was on CBS.

CW shows create bigger hype circles than ratings waves because they are popular with the right demos and have high amounts of coverage on TV publications for that reason. Like, 1.5 million viewers is probably putting a CW show into easy renewal range, but it's less than a third of Supergirl's lowest viewership on CBS.

 

[Sheroking]

Premium numbers usually hover around the 1-2 million viewer mark for prestige drama (lower for comedies). They in fact get the bulk of their viewership in reruns, streaming, and physical releases.

Damn, no wonder HBO is trying for all those GoT spin-offs.

Hard to put things into context I guess because I'm used to looking at non-premium cable numbers, but with the marketing blitz behind Westworld I guess I expected it to pull more.

Popular cablers also grow year over year where network shows tend to peak early and decline consistently. Westworld is likely to grow.

Thrones debuted to an average of 2.5 million, but has since grown to 7.6 million average. It towers over everything else in premium cable and it's series finale is likely to shatter the Sopranos record.

 

[The Illiterati]

Can someone sell me on this show? The trailer I viewed for season one looks pretty generic. What qualities stand out? The acting, the plot, the twists, character development? Does it have good forward progression? Just wondering if I should add this to my huge TV backlog.

 

[iceblade997]

I have never even heard of it. What is the show about?

Basically, a guy owns a nightclub but works with his partner and childhood friend dealing drugs too. He wants to go legit, but the friend doesn't, and he has to figure out how to go from there. It starts off a bit trope-y but manages to move away from that pretty well IMO.

So it turns out that if you make a good show for a Black audience, they'll watch it. The fact that this is was news in 2015 with Empire is truly depressing. The fact that Outlander fills the same void for women just makes it worse.

Well at least Peak TV clearly has room for everyone. Hell, the best show that I've found this year is a show about a polyamorous couple (no matter how much the word "throuple" makes me want to burn everything down).

IIRC that's been Starz's target for a while now. Going after underserved audiences. Seems to be paying off for them fortunately.

When does it air? Power is going up against Game Of Thrones during it's run this season, so it might lose some steam. But people only look and the premiere and finale ratings closely anyway so it might not hurt that bad.

June 25.

Can someone sell me on this show? The trailer I viewed for season one looks pretty generic. What qualities stand out? The acting, the plot, the twists, character development? Does it have good forward progression? Just wondering if I should add this to my huge TV backlog.

I liked the plot and I liked the twists (but I'm not someone who watches tons of TV so take that as it will). It moves forward nicely and doesn't go into being silly or unrealistic, and it managed to keep me engaged enough to want to keep following its progress (which is something since I tend to prefer watching shows that have finished airing so I don't have to wait. Also, the side-stories that supplement the main arc are interesting on their own. Most of all though, I like that it doesn't stay to the usual "I'm going legit" story, but finds its own way to tell a tale. Having the main character work with his friend, for example, has the two balance each other out pretty nicely and makes things more interesting. Don't really want to say too much in terms of stories, but if you like something that's more serious but contemporary and enjoyed Season 1 of The Wire or (perhaps less so) stuff like Narcos then it'd be worth giving this 2 or 3 episodes to try.

 

[ThePrivateCookie]

Damn, second behind GoT? A lot of people have been telling me to get into it. The lack of coverage doesn't surprise me that much though if I'm being honest

I could see if was doing mediocre but it's literally #2

 

[DontBeThatGuy]

Eh. There was a lot of buzz about Insecure here and elsewhere and the cast there is almost exclusively black.

Atlanta as well.

Is Power even any good? The review consensus isn't doing it any favors. (for season 1, at least)

 

[Vert boil]

Mediocre show with nice nudity.

 

[OmegaFax]

Ash vs. Evil Dead is what got me watching Starz.

 

[Socivol]

Nobody talks about it because it's about black folks.

Had it been about White people it would be all over the news.

There you have it! Mostly black and Latino cast which is why you don't hear about it. It's a great show though.

 

[yanipheonu]

That name doesn't do it many favours.

It's like that one show that is literally just called Revenge.
Gee, I wonder what that show is about.

 

[MetalFearSolid]

Good, and people were comparing this show to Empire? What?

Season 4 trailer just got released as well .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgaxVR_Ou9E

 

[gatti-man]

Been watching since day 1 of season 1. I thought season 3 was pretty poor tbh. Almost lost me entirely. I can't stand Angela. Anyways the show is probably the best show on premium cable behind GOT. Although I'd rank it GOT>Black Sails>power>Ash vs evil dead

 

[Juice]

Never heard of this series. Genuinely curious how its ratings got to where they are. Social media Balkanization?

 

[Socivol]

Been watching since day 1 of season 1. I thought season 3 was pretty poor tbh. Almost lost me entirely. I can't stand Angela. Anyways the show is probably the best show on premium cable behind GOT. Although I'd rank it GOT>Black Sails>power>Ash vs evil dead

Season 3 was only disappointing to me because Season 2 was so damn good. Season 3 killed a character that I couldn't wait to see die with an interesting twist. I am interested to see what happens this season with Ghost and Angela being on opposite sides.

 

[Kusagari]

Empire is about black people and gets tons of press so I don't agree with all the people just boiling it down to that.

I think the media in general treats every paid channel that isn't HBO like shit. They don't cover anything about them.

 

[Steejee]

For my part, it just didn't look that interesting in the ads i saw for it. Combine that with a huge backlog of shows I do want to watch or are already watching, it's hard to add something that doesn't look exciting.

Kinda sounds like Season 1 was meh, Season 2 was great, Season 3 was mixed. Is that a fair assessment?

Since I don't partake in social media, I don't really get roped into some of these under the radar shows until much later.

 

[ThePrivateCookie]

Never heard of this series. Genuinely curious how its ratings got to where they are. Social media Balkanization?

Black Twitter

 

[shintoki]

Black Sails has been really well liked too though it's not getting the viewership of Outlander and Power

It's like by the small dedicated fanbase, but that's it. It seems the same is true for most Starz shows. They have always been overshadowed by HBO. I think our Black Sails thread here got to 11 pages, with S3 getting to 13. For a show that is easily as impressive as GOTs.

I think this has to do more with any other show on Prem TV not on HBO, AMC, or FX. Even if it's great. It's always second place. Spartacus blew up(Still way down from anything on HBO)... It was most likely it being on Netflix is what help drive attention to it.

 

[VeeP]

Starz just started American Gods as well, which is amazing. Hopefully they get the rights to Sandman as well.

 

[sk3]

I mostly ignore starz, so doesn't surprise me most other people do as well.

Also not to talk bad about the show (never seen it), but ratings don't mean everything. Tons of people watch big bang theory, doesn't mean its good.

 

[Enzom21]

I mostly ignore starz, so doesn't surprise me most other people do as well.

Also not to talk bad about the show (never seen it), but ratings don't mean everything. Tons of people watch big bang theory, doesn't mean its good.

Does the press never talk about Big Bang Theory?
We are not talking about whether or not the show is good, we're talking about how it is seemingly ignored by the press.
---
I really need to watch Season 3.

 

[RatskyWatsky]

Why don't critics cover this despite the runaway success? It's really strange. The show grows in ratings every season, but it's ignored by TV media for the most part.

Critics tend to ignore certain channels in favor of others. Starz is one of those channels.

Outlander does not do as good as Power in the ratings, Power is the flagship show, but the media cover Outlander more for some reason.

Outlander is based on a long running series of best selling books - its built in fan base hyped the hell out of it. Also, Outlander is a much flashier and buzzier show (Ronald D. Moore is the showrunner, there's elaborate costumes, beautiful locales, big set pieces, time travel, etc.) than Power, which is a relatively conventional crime drama.

It's supposed to be coming in September.

June 25

I read last year that the show singlehandedly saved the channel.

Starz was never in any danger of going away.

Spartacus had higher ratings than Outlander too.

If you look back at the live ratings for older hit shows, they tend to be higher than the live ratings for current hit shows because the TV landscape was very different back then.

The Sopranos' live ratings were bigger than Game of Thrones' live ratings, for instance, but Game of Thrones is bigger when you factor in On Demand, DVR, etc. The same is true of Outlander vs Spartacus.

 

[cwmartin]

But that's really not how it works. A breakout show on CW would get more coverage than a flop on CBS.

A premium cable show that's only behind Game of Thrones should be getting more coverage than Power is getting. As it stands now Power isn't getting more coverage than other shows on Starz that it's beating. I'll never understand the obsession with Outlander. It's a C+ show at BEST.

I think you have a naive view of how television shows get coverage and buzz (aka marketing). This is on Starz to promote their shit. You think HBO just sits around and hopes a new show gets lots of buzz and reviews? Nah, they fucking create it and get it an as many hands as possible.

The number of Starz subscribers vs HBO subscribers will tell you all you need to know really.

 

[hbkdx12]

Love the show. Also love the fact that Starz puts the new episode on demand 12 midnight on sunday rather than waiting for it to air first at it's timeslot later that evening.

 

[Mushroomer25]

Premium cable ratings are still relatively low and niche compared to network or typical cable ratings.

That said, it's also hitting a completely different cultural demographic than the sort that typically writes about TV critically. There's a perception that African-American audiences aren't consuming TV criticism, so nobody's going to write about it (or publish that writing when it does happen). Thus, it leaves zero cultural impact outside of that main demographic.

Love the show. Also love the fact that Starz puts the new episode on demand 12 midnight on sunday rather than waiting for it to air first at it's timeslot later that evening.

This is also very nice for American Gods. I can watch it in the afternoon on Sunday, before the hot takes go live later in the night.

 

[Yabberwocky]

Oh, wow, I had no idea Power existed. It's fantastic it is doing so well, though. Starz's advertising department stays winning...

I think you have a naive view of how television shows get coverage and buzz (aka marketing). This is on Starz to promote their shit. You think HBO just sits around and hopes a new show gets lots of buzz and reviews? Nah, they fucking create it and get it an as many hands as possible.

The number of Starz subscribers vs HBO subscribers will tell you all you need to know really.

Yeah, absolutely. HBO is really on the ball. Stars did a terrible, TERRIBLE job advertising poor Black Sails, too. When they did advertise it, they couldn't figure out how to do it properly. Also, what idiot thought it was a great idea to use Executive Producer Michael Bay as an advertising point at every opportunity, it was the reason I didn't go near the show for years, it really gave a false sense of what the series was about. Incredible queer protagonists, complex women, amazing WoC, superb dialogue, great cinematography - it couldn't be less Michael Bay! /end rant. At least Starz seems to have done a lot better with advertising American Gods, but maybe Amazon is doing some heavy lifting there.