To paraphrase Elton John, it turns out Saturday night is alright for westerns. Well, one particular western drama on AMC that is. Stationed on the least watched night on TV for the second year in a row, the August 2 Season 4 debut of Hell On Wheels pulled in 2.42 million viewers in Live + SD and 3.6 million total viewers in Live + 3 numbers. Not only are those numbers quietly impressive when you consider the context. They are also, with a 5% rise in the Live + 3, basically the same as the Entertainment One and Nomadic Pictures produced show got for its August 10, 2013 Season 3 premiere and its October 5, 2013 season finale. In terms of the Adults 25-54 demo, HOW drew 840,000 viewers in Live + SD and saw a 58% jump up to 1.32 million in Live + 3 – showing someone’s certainly watching if not on Saturday night itself.
“We saw a strategic opportunity for Hell On Wheels on the toughest night of the week for TV, and now the show has grown two years in a row in this new slot,” said AMC president Charlie Collier in a statement today. The Joe Gayton and Tony Gayton-created series was renewed for a fourth season by AMC last November with a 13-episode order. It’s no head scratcher to tell why – on average, HOW delivered 3.3 million viewers in Live+3 for Season 3. That was a bit better than its Season 2 average on Sundays and doubling AMC’s Saturday night prime audience.
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