It wasn't a popular show when it first came out, not sure why they thought that would change.

I’ve never expected the renewal to be picked up for a 4th season. Im happy for the 6 episodes we got, and will be flabbergasted if it does continue

It’s mindblowing to me they didn’t make it next day on Hulu or something. Hardly anyone had Starz the first time around and hardly anyone does this time, yet they thought doing the same thing would have different results?

It’s audience doesn’t have Starz and a lot of people are probably waiting for it to fully air so they can binge it on a Starz free trial.

The other Starz stuff is more boomer oriented so they have actual cable subscribers to watch it.

Power, P-Valley and BMF aren't boomer oriented at all

I couldn't tell you any shows on the network besides those and Party Down

I was joking. But I mean, then that says something else entirely.

So I asked myself, “are black folks way more apt to be cable subscribers?”

Not only are they more likely to be cable subscribers, they’re the only group with GROWTH in cable subscriptions. Fascinating.

Guess that explains why Starz seems to be targeting the African-American demographic.

I know a lot of people who want to see it but don't have Starz

This season has been outstanding. Best season yet.

I would agree, and the mushroom episode in particular may be even better than the Steve Gutenberg ep, which I always thought was the peak

I think it was getting bellow 0.1 in the demo even 12 years ago. The fact is that barely anyone watched it back then, it got super hyped because it was like catnip for TV critics. The only reason it's back is because it's dirt cheap to produce and all the stars are taking a massive discount on their pay (I won't be surprised if they're getting just a few thousand dollars per episode).

I loved Party Down the first time, but I have too many other subscriptions to add another one solely for one show

At the time I remember reading that the season 2 premiere had like a 100% increase in viewership over the season 1 premiere and it still wasn't enough to justify a third season. I'm glad they ended up doing more eventually, but the show has always been a small cult hit at best.

I think they overestimate how successful the cast is. I mean most have had steady work but Adam Scott and Lizzy Kaplan are the big names and one didn't come back. And Scott has gained more notice from Severance than years of solid comedy work. Severance fans are not necessarily going to line up for this style of comedy. I do, but I doubt I'm the majority. Most of the others have just had really good side roles in something since

Super underrated show, the first 2 seasons are perfection

Agreed. I’m waiting til the finale to sign up for Starz for a month or whatever

I just wanted to see them get together, they both have brown hair

We wanted to watch the new season but had to catch prev episodes first

I love the show and was super excited for season 3 and got Starz the day episode 1 dropped. Three has been good and i was glad to see these miscreants again but my one month of starz already ended and I'm good to wait until there's a free option to see the final two eps. And before you say "it's only so and so dollars!" yes, i am very, very cheap.

Im guessing the thinking is that it picked up a bigger following on netflix/hulu over the years.

Adam Scott is the lead in season 3, which is awesome.

$3 a month

Much like MacGruber the series, I just went into it expecting it was all we we're going to get, and happy we got them.

Put it on a streaming service people actually watch and it will

Are we having fun yet?

This season has been very entertaining. Hopefully this doesn't cause it to be cancelled.

Yeah I'm enjoying it, and I like him a lot. I first saw him in Parks and Rec which was a great run for him.

I really like the cast, Martin Starr was a favorite from Freaks and Geeks and Silicon Valley more recently. As Parks fan Megan Mullaly is always fun. I love Jennifer Garner in general. I'd love to see more episodes, but I didn't hold out high hopes for them.

Big little lies gave him a nice boost

We can still enjoy the show without it becoming a hit. everything doesn't have to be a hit

That episode depicts the psychedelic experience in film better than anything I’ve ever seen before. From the acting, the dialogue, the editing…it absolutely nails what it feels like to be borderline out of control on mushrooms. It really is a fantastic episode.

I’ve been a fan since the show originally aired, and I agree, the new season is even better than the original seasons. (Honestly, I never really liked Lizzy Caplan’s character, so don’t feel she’s missing from the show).

Yesss I said the same thing! Finally a realistic trip on TV.

I think Scott has easily had the best career of anyone coming back since the original ended, but I just don't see him as a "I'm going to subscribe to Starz to see a show I didn't used to watch with him in it before now" star.

To me it was just a fun show to see a lot of actors I've gone on to like in other shows.

I don’t think they’ve done a good job promoting it.

The new season of what?

I’ve really been enjoying the season so far, especially the third ep. Sad that it’s not doing better.

I was in the same both. Honestly worth it, and Stars has on OK movie selection rn too

Shame this season isn’t nearly as funny as the first two.

Become quite a bit more generic sitcom.

I would imagine powers viewers and party downs are not the same

If Starz thought linear ratings mattered, they wouldn't be releasing the show 21 hours before the linear airing on the app. Measuring that viewership is what will tell them how popular it is.

It’s only $20 for 6 months so not too bad

No one is paying for Starz...and I saw almost 0 promotion for this show 🤷‍♂️

Any idea why this is? I was aware of this but I am not in the US

Huh! My sister pays for a cable package that has all the cable show streaming access. Between Paramount, HBO, Showtime,Starz, Peacock, she saves money with cable.

I’m just taking a shot in the dark here, but it could be black folks becoming more upwardly mobile, and after not having cable while younger they get it now as they are now better off financially than the generations before and we’re at a more disadvantageous place financially in their youth?

It could be simply more content that appeals to them on cable, than the streamers.

It could be something nefarious where black communities maybe tend to have less broadband options than white communities so black folks end up forced into cable internet and then “well, for only $30 more a month we can include Cable TV” and now they’re roped into that.

Cutting cable has gotten more expensive and difficult than it used to be and now there’s a hundred different streamers. So maybe they went back because of that.

(Again, a lot of this isn’t African American specific but is more of a socioeconomic issue and black folks still trail other groups in median income, and again, because literally all of American History has been spent screwing then over and making them literally stand in the back of the proverbial line.)

I’m just pulling ideas out my ass tho. It’s probably a little of each of these things. But again, I’m talking out my butt and just making educated hypothesises.

Lol. I literally just typed that out in another comment responding to someone in this thread.

ETA: link

No but then you'd be out $20 and have starz for half a year.

No but you're not gonna be getting more of it.

Waiting to binge.

Plus Black Sails

Cable is still popular for sports fans. Based on my life experience black people are more likely to be sports fans than other ethnic groups. My experience only extends to people in the US through.

Ehhhhhhh really? Man not even close….its like its always sunny season 14 - still good with great episodes, but off the boil….

Gross

I watched party down back in the day. Was funny but wasn't blown away For some reason didn't hit with me... I do love severance. Prob my favorite show of the past 5 years

Agreed, it's a great show and it can't be expensive to make, right? Let it be cherished by those of us that love it. And stick around long enough for LK to come back!

Agree. The mindset for some if it's not popular or have big ratings its not good is weird.

Enjoy the show and glad you have eps. My faves has been cancelled. I would gladly watch 6 eps if it came back.

Wait it’s only a 6 episode season?

Can’t even legally watch it in Europe at all…

Put that shit on hulu next day. I'm not going to buy a new subscription for one show. I'll just pirate if it isn't convenient.

Dude… it couldn’t beat My Wife and Kids at #150 with a 0.03 rating.

Took a look, this isn't a Hulu thing? Nobody has Starz, or ever had Starz, and this isn't the most popular show to begin with. Don't know what they expect is going to happen

Yep. I didn’t know until the preview at the end of the last episode that said “next week on the season finale” and I was pretty disappointed.

They’ve all been solid episodes but it feels like too little of a tease to bring the show back after 12 years then only do 6 episodes

I've been rewatching the original two seasons on Hulu. At one point two weeks ago the show was listed as expiring, and some episodes would have a bumper ahead of them telling you to sign up t for STARZ to watch the new season. Last week the expiring label disappeared, and I no longer get the bumper telling me about the new season.

That’s what people said 13 years ago. I look forward to 6 more episodes of Party Down in 2036. Ken Marino will still look exactly the same.

Hard disagree. The Nazi episode was a master class in farce, the mushroom episode was too notch. There hasn’t been a bad episode this season.

Damn that is very disappointing. Was assuming we have at least 8.

The season has been very enjoyable, I hope despite these ratings the streaming numbers give it enough audience to another season

Could wear the same jeans.

I love how they make that a joke in the first episode with Ron dying his hair grey to get more respect

Never heard of the show until it started getting promoted on Hulu to advertise the new season. Watched the old seasons and it was great. I'm not gonna subscribe to Starz for it though, I already have way too many streaming services. I'll watch it when they put it on Hulu

If ya don’t want any more Party Down ever again then don’t support em 🤷‍♀️

You can support a show without supporting the network. They should see that their subscription is pointless and they should be using ads to let people watch free

The only metric they care about is viewership and subscribers, so that’s not really true

I can see how $3 a month could be too high stakes for the apathy contingent tho

I could spend 9$ for a subscription or just wait to buy it later. Starz is a notoriously shitty streaming service as far as content goes so they literally force ppl into longer term subscriptions to make that money up

This was the case when I worked the cable company 6-8 years ago. Our customers didn't care about HBO (I have literally never met anyone in Alabama who watched GoT other than me) and liked Showtime occasionally, but Starz was very, very popular because of Power. We got tons and tons of Starz merch. I've still got a bunch of that crap in my car.

Idk man, Ken Marino is a heavy hitter in the critical-darling cult-classic sitcom space ;-)

So is it more regional than race?

So is it more regional than race - i.e do cable companies in the US only serve a specific area? In Australia there only is one so there are no regional differences.

[deleted]

Well, most of our customers were African-American so not necessarily. However, if a lot of Starz's customer base is just there for Power, I don't think they're going to be interested in watching Party Down.

The cable company I worked at from 2014-2016 only serviced specific areas in Alabama. They serviced the city of Birmingham (which is just under 70% African-American) and rural Alabama (which is mostly white). A different cable company serviced the suburbs (though they are the same company now).

Almost all of our merch was Starz-focused and revolved around Power. That's what people called in for. That's what they wanted us to pitch.

If anyone was obsessed with a franchise at that point in time, it was The Walking Dead. You didn't call in for that because you had it as part of your cable package. I cannot stress enough how big of a deal that was regionally. Everyone I knew was obsessed with it. It was absolutely a communal experience. This completely fell off over the past few years.

[deleted]

> do cable companies in the US only serve a specific area

yeah, most places only allow one company to serve their town

You can watch it in the UK but I don't think anyone else picked it up for distro in other countries.

Well of course. It's not like anyone was asking for this. This isn't a huge cult show where people have been endlessly begging for another season for years on end. It's a show that always had a small audience and will remain a show with a small audience. It wasn't popular when it originally aired. So why would it be popular now? It's not a hard concept. Sure, it's hilarious, but it never made sense why they decided to revive this for 6 episodes. Because why? Nobody was asking for it and it's clearly not making them any money, considering nobody is even watching it. Mind boggling to me. But hey, that's a TV network for ya. Doing the complete opposite of what makes sense. Lol

That's truly terrible. Was a great, underwatched show when it originally aired, and now the reunion suffers the same fate. Guess I should probably let go of any hope for a S4. Oh well. I feel blessed we got six more episodes of this show at all.