Starz’s fantasy series American Gods is back for its third season and the early ratings numbers for the show are quite low. So far it has only averaged a 0.05 rating based on same-day viewing for the 18-49 demographic and less than 200K total viewers. That is down notably from the 0.10 rating it averaged during its second season which was already down from the 0.28 score it had for its first season. The premium cable channels are not as concerned with the same-day viewing stats because they are not beholden to advertisers, though, and they take a more holistic approach by factoring in delayed and digital viewing as well as encore runs. Ultimately what determines the success of a show is how many subscribers its draws to the service. Still, the same-day averages do tend to act as a leading indicator, and the show’s numbers are not promising at this point.
Prior Starz genre entries Counterpart and The Rook were cancelled after averaging similar ratings, but both of those were from a couple of seasons back and this year has to be graded on a curve because the production delays have definitely impacted viewer interest in linear programming. American Gods is also currently running on highly competitive Sunday nights, so if it makes up slack in encore runs during the week as well as delayed and digital viewing, that could help it out. The networks don’t always share those numbers, though, so it hard to gauge their impact.
I had previously thought that the series was designed to tell the tale of the novel, with some additional material added, over a three-season period and then wrap it up at that point. But the show’s third season has not been announced as its last, and executive producer Neil Gaiman (who is also the author of the book) previously indicated plans for a fourth season. If that were to go beyond the book, that would make sense, but I have a hard time seeing how they will stretch the original story into a fourth year. American Gods has been garnering some awards attention which will certainly make network execs happy, but after the ratings declines, I am thinking they might have this one a short leash.
I have moved the show to Bubble status and will likely leave it there until we hear word on its fate. If the third season does not have a nice wrap-up, it’s possible Starz could let this one go for a fourth and final season, hoping that it can pull in a few more awards during its run. But it is certainly an expensive show to produce, and the numbers that we can see do not suggest it is drawing many subscribers to the network (though I renewed my Starz subscription to watch Season 3). Fans will definitely want to make some noise on the social networks to support this show and convince the network execs to keep it around for another year. But do not be surprised if this one wraps up with its third season (hopefully not leaving us on a cliffhanger).
American Gods airs Sundays at 8 PM EST on Starz, and you can catch up with prior seasons on the Starz streaming app. More about the show at this link.
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