The only viewership level I can find is for the premiere. When I try to find viewing levels for subsequent eps, all that I find are reviewers' articles on the ep and what they themselves thought about it. I think viewing levels drop with each episode, but I'd love to know if anyone has hard data, even if it refutes my belief.
shareFrom wikipedia
S01E01 - 0.975
S01E02 - 0.710
S01E03 - 0.716
S01E04 - 0.631
Thank you for that. That is significant continuing erosion, more evidence that viewers don't want to watch a show that requires them to have Cliffs Notes handy. That goes beyond being sloppy show running. That's arrogance. No wonder that HBO passed on this.
BTY, the ratings figures in the post above are for numbers of viewers in the millions. It's gone from 985,000 to 631,000 in four episodes.
I don't get the Hate or dislike you have for this show?. I mean if its that difficult for you to understand it where you require as you say "Cliff Notes" then why continue to even watch it?. When Rod Sterling started with Twilight Zone, it didn't have a mass appeal either, but it grew over the period because it challenged to THINK and reflect maybe and not to be spoon fed like or all the mundane shows that couldn't compete and that's why it became a classic and to this day Twilight Zone is respected as one of the best TV shows ever made. The same applies to "Star Trek" where Gene Roddenbury's father was apologizing to his friends or neighbors for his son's work to those who also felt the show way far fetched and yet even after cancelled in just 3 seasons then it was in syndication that it became appreciated and grew to the giant franchise that it has today.
Not every show has to be so linear and so clear for the audience to digest as its instant gratification. "American Gods" is touching on the very issues in a metaphoric way to point the current pop culture's media brain washed society that is causing people like YOU to find it a chore to THINK, because maybe most people don't even take the time to READ a book. This show is all about symbols of past versus present superficial, clues for the audience to seat back and maybe think and investigate as to who is these Characters like Mr. Wednesday represent and what is their goal here and why does a character like Mr. World is threatened by Mr. Wednesday.
I loved this show from the very first episode because its compelling in its original structure in what its trying to say, I never needed cliff notes either; to me its a timely original piece of art that is looking at our current culture and what its going on from different perspective.
Here is a suggestion, there are some great videos on Youtube you can watch like "American gods episode 1 breakdown":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNNSbHRUdDs&t=9
Can you be any more smug and condescending while patting yourself on the back for watching a TV show? We're all REALLY impressed that you manage to repeat verbatim what some other pseudo intellectual douche bag told you to think in a youtube video. Sadly you fail to grasp what your dependence on youtube says about you even as you're attempting to appear superior to others.
The worst episodes of The Twilight Zone and Star Trek are so superior to the convoluted pile of shit that is American Gods they can barely be considered products of the same medium.
First, I don't need you to understand. My impression of you is that there are a great many things in the world that you don't understand; but I will say this, that I have never come close to saying that no one should like AG. If you like it, fine. Enjoy. Second, you don't engage me enough either personally or intellectually for me to read your long-winded post, so I only saw the first, and last, few words. The last few were a reiteration of your advice to watch a Youtube video that will explain everything. The overwhelming majority of normal people who want to be entertained by a TV show are unwilling to be required to do homework in order to "get it." I am one of them; so too are, apparently, one-third of the show's initial audience, which is why they are gone. I'll stick it out for Wednesday and Mad Sweeney, but the show is exceedingly sloppy work.
PS Thank you, pankeoken! I was writing this while you were posting. I hope it is clear that it was not intended for you😄 And I second every word of your post! We are kindred.
I understand anything that is more than a sentence or two is a challenge for someone like you, especially when its hits home...Lol
You know, you actually contribute to the world that Mr. World represents....stay occupied and ignorance is a bliss...:-)
This is a public Movie chat board if you are so touchy about other people's opinions then don't post threads because you can't tell people what's for them or not. You are a arrogant and ignorant, that just sums up why you need CLIFF NOTES...lol
No problem R. Kane. Your earlier post in no way came across as insulting or mean spirited in any way. Definitely not enough to warrant the reaction you received. Also it's not like you were saying you needed Cliffs Notes to understand an episode of The Big Bang Theory. American Gods IS confusing and sloppy and structured very poorly so far. It was obvious (at least to me) you were curious if other viewers were turned off by the fact it's a mess and tuned out because of it. You even said you wanted to know even if you were wrong. Your suspicions were confirmed. You were not insulting at all other than the Cliffs Notes joke which was spot on.
I admit I have a pet peeve about smug pseudo intellectual types. Birdman was a particularly annoying example of that and is too clueless to grasp why he's so embarrassingly laughable. The fact he claims to:
"loved this show from the very first episode because its compelling in its original structure in what its trying to say, I never needed cliff notes either; to me its a timely original piece of art that is looking at our current culture and what its going on from different perspective." and then followed that nonsense by suggesting you watch a youtube video was hilarious. More so because you know he doesn't see the irony.
First off, I'm glad you're enjoying the show so much. And if it gives you food for though, that's great.
But. If you need to watch youtube videos to piece together the basics of what's happening in this show, they're not doing a good enough job of a) making the audience think for themselves and b) communicate what the basic structure of it is. That should be apparent from epidose one.
Now we have random glimpses into the old world gods' struggles with modern life (not in enough episodes to make it important). A character that's getting a disproportionate amount of development half way through the season (too late and that makes you think why her). And an impending war, that was forgotten for a few episodes, and the players in it are getting less screen time, than a zombie. What does Laura have to do with the modern world's over reliance on media? And why should Mr World be that important to me as an audience, if he's been in one scene? Nothing is getting properly developed, bacause they're just cramming too much in. It works for books, but with shows you need to edit some of this stuff. There's no focus on anything here.
If you want to be challenged by a show, both by its structure and its content, watch Legion. That's a show where the confusion is very purposeful, and not a by-product of lack of focus.
If you look around this board, you'd see that people are mainly talking about the confusing structure and just what's happening there. You go over at Legion's board, we were losing our minds over the actual content of the show. That has to be indicative of something.
Have you read the book? Is that why you like the structure? Because I'm lost, and not for lack of will to think.
First of, I was only suggesting the Youtube videos to two different people, one iof them is a poster ( R_Kane) above yours who said he needs "Cliff Notes", otherwise I can tell you I have not watched any Youtube to understand the show. In fact those Youtube videos barely touch the surface of what the show, its just a suggestion for those who need extra help.
I have not watched "Legion"; I saw the trailer and it didn't really grab my interest because it felt like it was for younger, maybe high school generation?...that's just an impression I got from it. I didn't like "Westworld" when I first saw the first or the second episode but it got better toward the middle and end. There are shows that I know right away I know I like such AG and "Taboo" with Tom Hardy, which I loved every episode of it. However, I do agree and not deny that AG can be confusing and maybe incoherent to many, but our taste is just different,d I like that confusion and the so-called lack of development that bothers you and others on the boards.
I also agree that yes characters like "Laura" are a waste of screen time and that production time should have been spent on Mr. World maybe?..but in the same token, Mr.World was introduced to us just like the new Gods who we got to see a glimpse in one episode or another, maybe there was a reason for the writers to bring Mr. World and Mr. Technical and Marlyn Monroe in one scene to have a stronger impact, which worked for me in episode 5.
I don't compare one show to another (Legion to AG) in character development or structure, because if you ever watched films of European directors such as "Alain Resnais", where the structure is all disjointed at times, where characters come in at intervals that were not in the beginning, then you begin to understand that style of structure is the grammar of the way the story is been told to us and whatever Legion's structure is tailored to fit that story.
And No I have not read the book but I intent to.
Hey, if the structure appeals to you, it appeals to you. Nothing we could say is going to change that, nor should it. But interesting and compelling television, with fleshed out themes and characters this ain’t. Not at this stage anyway. And for something with an 8 episode season, that should've happened already IMO.
I didn't feel much impact at Mr World's introduction (beyond seeing Crispin Glover and enjoying his performance). He seems like a powerful character and foe for Mr Wednesday, so I feel there should have been more build up for his apearense. Maybe that's just me.
A disjointed structure could work as a way to tell a story, but you (general you) still need to be clued in on what's happening. And I think it needs more consistency to fully work.
And finally, the reason why I compared American Gods to Legion, is because it is also a very stylised show, that has a weird structure. And I think that it uses it's structure better as a way to tell the story. Same with Taboo. Pretty early on they set up that there are going to be weird visions and ghosts and what-not, so when those happen, you're not confused as to why that is included.
Anyway, keep enjoying the show, and if you feel like you're getting something from it, more power to you. As they say, different strokes for different folks.
thx for the info, really sad to see it has been doing so poorly.
shareIt does well in On-Demand figures which isn't surprising for a show like this, for the week of May 28th - June 03rd it did 35,128,321 coming third behind Game Of Thrones on 35,290,017 with both miles behind The Walking Dead at 57,704,508.
Started out at 30,590,330, went up to 39,956,920, up to 41,759,140 down to 34,468,168 up to this weeks 35,128,321 = an average of 36,320,575 for the season so far. So next batch out will tell the picture more, as it seems as though the ups were people catching up and it's leveled out now (so I think 34 - 35.5 million will be about it from here on in).
Figures via: https://www.parrotanalytics.com/news/top-10-most-in-demand-shows-in-the-us-may-28-june-3-2017
Thank you for sharing that. For episode 6, the show's ratings share among viewers age 18-49 was 0.2 The same measurement for the premiere was 0.4.
shareYeah 607,000 ... was a pretty bad night all up, best (on cable) was Fear the Walking Dead as Top 2 with 1.18 and 1.04, though of course with these things that was just on the 18-49 Demo as the third place Nascar Cup actually got more viewers and only a 0.63.
Ratings Source: https://goo.gl/CW7XpJ
So yeah, will be interested to see if the OnDemand goes up based on the drop in the overnight/same day ratings. As I understand it, the only way you can watch American Gods OnDemand is to be a Starz subscriber, it's not on Hulu, Amazon, Google Play, iTunes and Vudu yet. So Starz will still be happy with them being premium cable if they're getting eyeballs OnDemand on cable or their $8.99 per month stand alone app (https://goo.gl/WuINDM).
It's actually a pity American Gods falls at #52 for the night, as if you look at the show before it The White Princess at #50, you can see a better breakdown of the demographics. While it also got a 0.21 average in the 18-49 demo as a whole, that was on 868,000 with 0.30 female and 0.12 male. However once you go over to 25-54 it gets 0.28 and 50+ 0.53, however reports only focus on the 18-49 as that's all advertisers care about.
And for Premium cable that isn't as important:
https://goo.gl/Xy1TRshare
The premium networks are in the business of selling subscriptions. A Showtime spokeswoman told me that the channel’s goal is to satisfy subscribers and to entice nonsubscribers to sign up. They keep their customers happy by allowing them to watch original TV series, exclusive movies, and sports programming whenever they want to—it doesn’t make a lick of difference to HBO if subscribers watch Game of Thrones the first time it airs or six days later.
That is an interesting, intelligent and useful post. Thank you.
shareFor this weeks OnDemand American Gods was down on the 35,128,321 and came in at 33,970,538, however moved to second beating Game of Thrones on 31,262,033. Again both a long way off The Walking Dead at 61,126,573 (up 3,422,065). Orange Is The New Black got 25,519,171 in two days (was released on the 09th and these are the June 04th to 10th figures), so may have taken some away from AG and GoT, though that also makes TWD's figures even more impressive.
Source: https://www.parrotanalytics.com/news/top-10-most-in-demand-shows-in-the-us-june-4-june-10-2017/
As an update the past two weeks for On Demand:
June 11th to 17th: https://www.parrotanalytics.com/news/top-10-most-in-demand-shows-in-the-us-june-11-june-17-2017
American Gods was up a tad compared to the week before on 34,503,789 (+ 533,251), though Orange Is The New Black came in second on 36,467,704, again both miles off The Walking Dead on 63,906,9896. Seems Game Of Thrones was the one people watched less as that fell to fourth on 28,992,196, so Orange Is The New Black more than likely took their numbers.
June 18th to 24th: https://www.parrotanalytics.com/news/top-10-most-in-demand-shows-in-the-us-june-18-june-24-2017
American Gods was up a far bit compared to the week before on 42,129,503 (+ 7,625,714 or 8.15+ million on 2 weeks ago), so it appears people were playing catch-up on some episodes coming into the finale and was back in second position. Orange Is The New Black was down to 5th on 25,460,146 which means the binge watchers were done with the season I guess or Pretty Little Liars in 4th on 26,892,89, took a good chunk of OITNB viewers. The Walking Dead once again pummeled everyone else on 67,618,247, Game Of Thrones gained ground and came in third on 35,081,308.
So little wonder Starz is happy with American Gods as it's going toe to toe with the big shows in the on-demand stakes, which as outlined above is very important to a premium cable network like Starz (overnights don't mean as much). So given the only way you can watch AG On-Demand is on Starz, it means AG is bringing subscribers to it or at the least retaining them keeping exisiting ones happy. Remember AG is not on iTunes, Hulu + or Google Play and even on Amazon you have to subscribe to Starz separately, so AG may be bringing in new viewers via the $8.99 per month App.
It should be said that those numbers aren't viewers. The site parrotanalytics has invented something it calls "demand expression"....
https://www.parrotanalytics.com/demand-data/
....which sounds methodologically shaky and includes things like online discussions, reviews, social media, and possibly searches (it's not clear), along with views across various platforms, to form some type of aggregate score. There aren't anywhere near 30 million people watching this show.
Regardless of method though it is keeping up with the bigger shows around in that metric, all the shows are on an equal footing. They take in to account downloaded (which I didn't know), and if you go by last year and TorrentFreak's figures, it was Game Of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Westworld in the top 3: http://www.businessinsider.com/most-pirated-shows-2016-12/?r=AU&IR=T/#10-the-grand-tour-1 so American Gods is keeping up with those.
Nielson Social also reflects it, unfortunately can't go back on it without paying a fee, but they're Social Interactions are what shows talk about like they're the be all and end all:
http://www.nielsensocial.com/socialcontentratings/weekly/ Unfortunately (in my view), that whole social interaction in shows is becoming a big thing, what people are second screening is now important (hence the hashtags to follow tags on shows).
The traditional ratings have always been shaky at best anyway, I mean 5,000 households out of 99 million households in the USA representing what people watch (http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/question433.htm)
Though at least they are starting to catchup with Nielsen also adding online viewing 4 years ago (http://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/28/tech/web/nielsen-tv-ratings-online/index.html), however again finding the results isn't that easy or reported much. Well apart from what's trending on Twitter seeming to mean more and more, which again I'm not a fan of as I think it's adding to the dumbing down of shows. You see it on here (and prior on IMDb), people miss crucial parts of shows now and ask questions about things that are really obviously explained.
Anyway I've got off-topic a fair bit here, starting to feel like Old Man Simpson talking about having onions on his belt