Walter White really did win last night, at least as far as the ratings are concerned, by comparison to Breaking Bad’s third season finale. Viewership is up for the series, which capped off it’s fourth seasons last night with an episode that included more than one jaw-dropping moment.
Those of us who thought there might be a big confrontation between Walter and Gus last night were surprised to learn there was a more literal interpretation to the episode title. “Face Off” indeed. RIP Gustavo! You can read a more thorough rundown of my thoughts on the excellent season finale here. In the meantime, there’s cause to celebrate as Breaking Bad out-did itself in the ratings last night.
According to Entertainment Weekly, the AMC drama series took in 1.9 million viewers in its first airing, up 19% from the third season finale. The site also says viewership is up 23% on average for the series’ fourth season.
Had Netflix begun streaming the earlier seasons much sooner than it had, I might attribute the bump in viewers to added fans who got caught up on the series through Netflix and jumped on board for Season 4, however since the show only became available on the streaming video service last month, my guess is that the huge gap between Seasons 3 and 4 (13 months from when Season 3 ended, to when Season 4 began) is what did it. It's probable the hiatus gave people plenty of time to get caught up and AMC reaired all three seasons at least once during the series’ break, which allowed people the opportunity to do just that. It’s also possible July through October is a better bracket of time for the series than a winter/spring premiere, as the show has seen in previous seasons. Either way, it’s good to see the series getting more viewers. Now there are more of us to countdown to the next season to see where things pick up when the show resumes!.
