OUTLANDER Season 7B coming in November!

3/22/2024 06:38:00 AM
Outlander TV series logo

STARZ announced yesterday that the second half of OUTLANDER Season 7 (aka 7B) will be coming in November, 2024!

My first reaction was, "November?!? So much for my nice relaxing holiday season this year!" It means that I'll be extremely busy in November, December, and possibly part of January, writing my usual detailed episode recaps and managing the Season 7 discussions on TheLitForum.com, which is the online forum where Diana Gabaldon hangs out. (You have to sign up to read or post on the forum, but it's free.) Oh, well. We went through a similar "thread explosion" when BEES came out at Thanksgiving in 2021, and we got through it.

Beyond my own personal reaction, though, it's important to acknowledge that a lot of fans are disappointed and frustrated to hear that we still have such a long time to wait! I sympathize, believe me! But I wanted to share some thoughts I had yesterday about a possible reason for the November date. Please keep in mind that most of this is my own speculation, and I could be wrong!

One of STARZ's other shows, POWER BOOK II: Ghost, will air its 4th and final season in the Friday 8pm slot on STARZ that OUTLANDER occupied last year. Here's the announcement, posted on March 14, 2024.

Note that the article says clearly that POWER BOOK II's season will air in two parts:

STARZ has canceled Power Book II: Ghost, with the show’s fourth season to serve as its last. It will be broken into two parts, premiering June 7 and September 6.

Now, I don't know how many episodes each of those parts will consist of, but it seems to me there's very likely a scheduling conflict involved here.

Let's suppose they want OUTLANDER Season 7B to air on Fridays at 8pm like last season. Well, when can they fit it in? Starting on June 7, POWER BOOK II will occupy that time slot for X episodes. Then a short break, followed by Part 2 of POWER BOOK II's final season, starting on Friday, September 6, for a further Y episodes.

It's possible that they just could not find a stretch of 8 consecutive weeks in that Friday 8pm time slot in which to show the eight episodes of OUTLANDER Season 7B, until after Part 2 of POWER BOOK II's final season is over (which I'm guessing will be sometime around late October or early November). So that may be why 7B is scheduled to start in November.

I could be wrong, of course, but I think that's plausible. I have never watched POWER or any of its spinoff series, but it clearly has quite a following, enough to spawn multiple sequels. And perhaps the people who come up with the schedules at STARZ decided to give that show priority over OUTLANDER 7B, for whatever reason.

In any case, we can't change this decision. It is what it is. We'll just have to continue to be patient. I think the final 8 episodes of Season 7 will be worth waiting for!

UPDATE 6/2/2024: STARZ has announced that the second half of Season 7 will begin on Friday, November 22, 2024. Look here for more details.

Leave a Comment

10 comments

Linda C said...

I think you bring up some very good points. Like you, I really don't know. However, I think both the writers and actors strikes did halt much of the post-production work so there was that delay. Additionally, I don't think they were sure that there would be a Season 8 as they were filming Season 7 so there might have been quite a bit of reconfiguring things now that they had more time to work with the story. Just my thoughts. I'm waiting patiently until November. We wait for Diana's amazing books so I can wait for Outlander Season 7B as well.

March 22, 2024 at 7:12 AM
Carol said...

Thank you for shining some highly possible light on why Outlander's season 7b has been scheduled so late in 2024. The word "muddle" comes to mind!

March 22, 2024 at 7:47 AM
Pele said...

Your reflection on Power Book II: Ghost is interesting BUT is it as popular as Outlander?? Outlander chose to continue for a final season. It wasn't canceled by Starz like Power Book. Though Power Book II is getting a prequel just like Outlander (cheaper costs - see below article) So I suppose... with the mindset of canceling series after 4 seasons to introduce cheaper spin offs... fans of Outlander should be grateful that Starz even agreed to a final 8th Season. Keep wondering if the delay is more to connect prequel with original to ensure success. So Outlander 7B runs in the final months of 2024, followed by prequel in early/mid 2025, then Season 8 in late (hopefully not as late as 7B) 2025. I think frustration with fans is knowing Season 7 is complete and sound suspicion that the delay is purely business...highly influenced by Starz & Liongate parting ways.
https://deadline.com/2024/03/lionsgate-starz-ceo-content-costs-series-power-bmf-1235856002/

March 22, 2024 at 10:49 AM
Anonymous said...

Trying to find an 8 week stretch that isn’t messed up by Christmas and NY from Friday 1st November is impossible. Bearing in mind they always have a week off before the final episode it should air over 9 weeks - though they may not do that this time. If you start on 11/1/24 then the 8th week is 11/20/24 - the Friday before Christmas. That seems a poor choice of final episode as so many people are busy at that time of the year. It would make sense to skip 12/20/24 and 12/27/24 as those episode will clash horribly with real life commitments. I think this “muddle” is not yet over!

March 22, 2024 at 11:15 AM
JazybluSarah said...

Such good pint about scheduling. I'm slightly disability the timing but I figures the strike and the renewal for a S8 could have also impacted the decision.
For me the really awful part was how the notice was shared. The SM post was too low key. As if they wanted to fly under the radar. They should know the OL fan base is not low key. With a bit of forthrightness and a we but if humor I think they could have done such a better job sharing the news. That could have created a sense of partnership and empathy between Starz and the fans. A real missed opportunity IMO.

March 22, 2024 at 2:23 PM
Brenda said...

For those who might wonder why Power got priority over Outlander, Power is Starz' most popular show (Outlander is second). I think the intensity of Outlander fans' devotion makes us feel like no show could be more popular, but it isn't actually so.

March 23, 2024 at 11:59 PM
Anonymous said...

More than likely, there will be no episodes showing the Friday of a holiday weekend (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s) so the season will get stretched out as such. Plus throw in any holiday parties that you may have been invited to in the meanwhile. …sigh… Get your DVR ready for recording or stream the episodes when you can.

March 24, 2024 at 1:12 AM
Anonymous said...

OUTLANDISH... THAT THOSE STARZ MUPPETS ARE EXTENDING DROUGHLANDER, AGAIN!
Utterlty dispicable!
I haver contacted SONY and LIONSGATE about this issue of hanging out the fans to dry!
I sure hope Starz will reconsider this dreadful situation and the taunting online is a knife in the back with an added twisting motion, to make it hurt even more!
If they lose revenue from people leaving their service, which I hear is already happening, then that's totally justified!
Shame on you Starzzzzzzzzzzzz

March 26, 2024 at 12:41 PM
Anonymous said...

News flash-- Jerking loyal fans around, posting seasons YEARS later, splitting up seasons-- I am very angry to be frank. This isn't Season 7B-- it's 'season 8'. Season 8 is actually season 9.. drip, drip, drip- lets just drag this out as long as possible, and rack in the bucks. It's terrible. Will I watch? No-- not until all these episodes are out. Then? Cancelling Starz-- again. Sorry there was a writers strike. Stop taking fans for granted. It's a bad practice.

May 28, 2024 at 1:17 PM
Linda in Nevada said...

Nobody seems to notice that there are 6 (count 'em...SIX) other days in a week. Is Outlander glued to Fridays? And isn't the move from Sunday to Friday a big part of the reason viewers left? I was looking at a Netflix show that was cancelled after 3 seasons, then picked up by Netflix for three more seasons, each of which were 22 episodes without HUGE gaps between seasons. ("Lucifer") Maybe someone at Starz could take notes on how that could work for them.

June 2, 2024 at 2:34 PM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments ( Atom )
Powered by Blogger.