The show runners of Homeland pulled off a magic trick that worked. The first episode post-twist scored record-high ratings for season 3.
Homeland season 3, episode 5 “The Yoga Play” nabbed 2 million viewers when it aired live and ticked up to 2.7 million with additional airings included. That’s the highest for the show this season. The live viewership was a 13% increase when compared to last Sunday, and overall the show was up 9% over last week.
The ratings are particularly impressive when you also consider the show was up against the wildly popular Walking Dead season 4 and Sunday Night Football.
The second-to-last episode of Homeland season 3 included the introduction of a twist where we learned that Carrie and Saul had secretly plotted the former’s placement in the psych ward so Langley mastermind Javardi would notice her vulnerability and take advantage of it by getting her out and woo-ing her into turning. The plan – in Javardi’s mind – seems to have worked, but the cliffhanger for the most recent episode saw the terrorist tell Carrie that he knows about her yoga trips, which suggests he may know about her and Saul’s plans.
Read our Homeland recap to get caught up on the latest plot developments.
No matter what Javardi knows, the twist made headlines around the media world and surely lured in stronger viewership to see what the first steps would be in Carrie and Saul’s plan now that the viewers are in on the secret.
Previews for next week’s episode show that Javardi will grill Carrie in a way that may put her in a tough position. Homeland season 3, episode 6 “Still Positive” airs Sunday, November 3 at 9 p.m. eastern/pacific on Showtime.
If Homeland can keep the attention-grabbing twists up and feature a little more action, the show may be able to hold on to these larger ratings and win over a skeptical public.