Sons Of Anarchy fifth season premieres tonight on FX at 10p ET/PT. Its fourth season premiere on September 6, 2011 drew a series high 4.9 million viewers and a 2.5 adults 18-49 rating in live plus same day DVR viewing. Many, including show creator Kurt Sutter, wondered whether a "Netflix effect "allowed people to catch on to the show and then make it appointment viewing. I'm not sure about that mostly because it's a serial show and heading into the fourth season premiere, the third season of SOA wasn't yet available on Netflix. Similarly, season four is not yet available heading into tonight's fifth season premiere. Plus (sadly) I have absolutely no idea what SOA's Netflix viewing trends are.
So it's hard to say what role Netflix had, but either way last year's season premiere scored series high ratings. What will happen this year? The season four finale on December 6, 2011 averaged a 2.1 adults 18-49 rating and 4.244 million viewers.
Do you have any idea what the 1st and 2nd season premiere demos were? I can only find the press release numbers in millions of 18-49 year olds, not an actual demo number.
Wow, I had completely forgotten about SOA!
I’m going to go lower than last year, probably around the season finale mark. Last season was fantastic, but the payoff in the finale was TERRIBLE. They chickened out of doing what they should have, and it made for a really frustrating viewing experience.
To be honest, I don’t even know if I’m going to bother.
@Tyler: the second season premiered to a 2.3 adults 18-49 rating and 4.33 million viewers. First season premiered to 2.5 million viewers and ~1.2 A18-49 rtg.
Considering the crapstatic shows of the last few years on tv, a bad SOA is still better than the majority of them. At least it is something and not the usual boring milquetoast show. It will get new high or around the same rating of last year.
@Robert Seidman
You are a gentleman.
I feel a 2.4 with this show.
Should at least do a 2.5 & I’m thinking maybe slightly more
Until LA Complex came out I used to believe this was the best show on television. I can’t wait for the premiere tonight.
I went 2.3 last season was sort of a dud and the third season was no gem either. I think the show may have peaked.
*not afraid to be wrong*
Well, it was the “netflix effect” for us, as we watched seasons 1-3, and then DVR’ed season 4 as they re-ran all the episodes in the last month or so.