Better Call Saul Ratings Return Down; Viewership Steady With S1 Finale

Via deadline.com: With 2.57 million viewers and a 1.06 rating in the 18-49 demo, the drama’s sophomore opener was down 23% and 33% from its Monday time slot debut of a non-President’s Day February 9 last year. Unlike it’s 2015 Monday opener, the Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould created Breaking Bad prequel of sorts had not just a holiday to contend with but some heavy competition on broadcast with the declining but still ratings packing Grammy Awards on CBS this year. However, finale-to-debut, Monday’s BCS was up a tad in viewership from its Season 1 ender of April 6 last year. That “Marco” episode drew in an audience of 2.53 million. In the key demo, the S2 debut was down from the S1 finale by 12% Compared directly to its Season 1 premiere, which was on a Sunday, the February 15 Season 2 debut was always going to be down, significantly. The February 8 BCS S1 opener had 6.88 million viewers and a 3.4 rating. Unlike that cable record busting February 8 opener, the S2 start of BCS didn’t have the ratings Atlas rocket boosters of The Walking Dead as a lead-in. Now, AMC like to deal in Live + 3 not Live + Same Day numbers so we’ll have to wait until early next week to hear from them on the BCS S2 start. As a point of reference, with the 3-day digital time shifting viewing, the February 8 debut of BCS ended up with drew 9.8 million total viewers. That was a 42% jump from the Live + SD numbers. In delayed viewing, BCS’s opener had a 40% leap among the 18-49s to 6.1 million viewers, a cable record at the time. With 5.8 million in total viewers, the Monday February 9 airing was up 69% from its Live + SD numbers and rose 76% among the 18-49s to 3.6 million.