'Vikings' Season 4 News: Premiere Date Announced, Season To Be Released In Two Parts
History is set to air the fourth season of Irish-Canadian historical drama series "Vikings," and it appears that the show's success has led the cable channel to order four more episodes on top of the sixteen it originally commissioned. It has also split "Vikings" Season 4 into two parts, with the first half premiering on Thursday, Feb. 18, and the other half airing in the latter part of 2016.
A twenty-episode season is closer to a full network order than that from a cable channel, which implies that though History isn't really known for its original programming, the sweeping historical drama has found huge success at the cabler.
Apart from additional episodes to flesh out its fourth season, "Vikings" is also getting the big-name TV series treatment, getting its upcoming Season 4 split into two. Thus, instead of going through all twenty episodes over the winter and spring seasons, History is using a divide-and-conquer approach similar to how AMC's "The Walking Dead" is aired and how Starz released "Outlander" in its first season. History announced that the first 10 episodes of Season 4 will begin airing in February, with a new episode released every Thursday. The remaining 10 episodes will hit the same schedule later in 2016.
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The critically acclaimed drama, which is inspired by the adventures of legendary Norse hero Ragnar Lothbrok (played by Travis Fimmel in the TV series), experienced a dip in ratings in Season 3. All things considered, "Vikings" is still doing relatively well, with over 2 million viewers every week - a more-than-decent viewership for a cable series. Cinema Blend points out that the extra episodes and new schedule may mean that the series is wrapping up. However, it could also be a move to get viewers to stay engaged with the series throughout the entire year or it may simply mean that Season 4 needs twenty episodes to tell its story completely.
"Vikings" Season 4 airs Feb. 18 at 10 p.m. on History.
