Vikings season two ships viewers

The new season of History’s period drama Vikings has failed to muster the same stellar rating as the launch of season one.

The first season had a huge advantage in that it had ratings juggernaut The Bible as a lead-in show. It generated around six million viewers per episode when following The Bible.

The season two curtain-raiser last Thursday won 3.6 million viewers, which would be considered strong numbers were it not for the tough season-on-season comparison.

History said that the number of viewers was up on the last four episodes of season one when Vikings did not have The Bible running immediately before.

The ratings, collated by Nielsen, make Vikings the third most watched cable drama of the year behind American Horror Story: Coven and The Walking Dead.