OUTLANDER Season 7B coming in November!
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.
https://deadline.com/2024/03/lionsgate-starz-ceo-content-costs-series-power-bmf-1235856002/
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.
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