‘Power’ Hits Season High Viewership, Despite Online Leaks Of Starz Drama

With a vital death, a powerful meet-up between old lovers, city power plays plus online leaks and despite facing the penultimate episode of the penultimate season of Game Of Thrones, last night’s Power hit a season high among viewers.

In what is the fifth-best number the Starz drama has ever done, Sunday’s 9 PM “That Ain’t Me” Season 4 episode snared an audience of 1.9 million. That’s the best the Courtney Kemp-created Power has done since the 2.01 million who watched the Season 3 finale on September 25 last year. The all-time top viewership for Power remains the 2.26 million who watched the first run of the Season 3 debut of July 17, 2016.

Last night’s Vic Mahoney-directed episode saw a rise of 13% in total viewers over the Season 4 premiere of June 25 this year. Up 5% from last week, the penultimate Season 3 episode aired as the last several episodes of this cycle were posted online a few weeks ago. The Chris Albrecht-run premium cabler has vowed “legal action against the responsible parties.”

On linear and multi-platform viewing, Power was averaging an audience of around 8 million per episode in Season 3. So far this season, on the same metrics, the show is averaging 8.4 million viewers an episode, a rise of 5%. Starz doesn’t generally release week-to-week numbers for app usage, but insiders say the big jump that the Season 4 debut saw is continuing for the series.

Lawyers and app aside, that certainly cements that the leaks haven’t hurt the Curtis  “50 Cent” Jackson co-starring series one bit. In fact, like the highs GoT have been hitting despite its own leaks, the rise for last night’s Power follows the nearly 10% uptick seen by the August 13 airing, which was after the leaks appeared online. With next week seeing a Season 4 marathon, the Power finale is set to air September 3.

Renewed last year for both a Season 4 and Season 5, the next cycle of Power is expected to debut in summer 2018.