How I Met Your Mother season 4 explained

Season Number:	4
Bgcolour:	FF6052
Image Upright:	1.15
Num Episodes:	24
Network:	CBS
Prev Season:	Season 3
Next Season:	Season 5
Episode List:	List of How I Met Your Mother episodes

The fourth season of the American television comedy series How I Met Your Mother premiered on September 22, 2008 and concluded on May 18, 2009. It consisted of 24 episodes, each running approximately 22 minutes in length. CBS broadcast the fourth season on Monday nights at 8:30 pm in the United States. The complete fourth season was released on Region 1 DVD on September 29, 2009. In the United Kingdom it aired on E4.^[1]

The fourth season is the only season of How I Met Your Mother to be nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series.^[2]

Cast

Main cast

• Josh Radnor as Ted Mosby
• Jason Segel as Marshall Eriksen
• Cobie Smulders as Robin Scherbatsky
• Neil Patrick Harris as Barney Stinson
• Alyson Hannigan as Lily Aldrin
• Bob Saget (uncredited) as Future Ted Mosby (voice only)

Recurring cast

• Sarah Chalke as Stella Zinman
• Lyndsy Fonseca as Penny, Ted's Daughter
• David Henrie as Luke, Ted's Son
• Charlene Amoia as Wendy the Waitress
• Bryan Callen as Bilson
• Jason Jones as Tony Grafanello
• Darcy Rose Byrnes as Lucy Zinman
• Marshall Manesh as Ranjit
• Joe Nieves as Carl, the owner of MacLarens Pub
• Matt Boren as Stuart

Guest cast

• Regis Philbin as himself
• Bill Fagerbakke as Marvin Eriksen, Sr.
• David Burtka as Scooter
• Frances Conroy as Loretta Stinson
• Erin Cahill as Heather Mosby
• Brooke D'Orsay as Margaret (Betty - Barney's Wife)
• Laura Prepon as Karen
• Kendra Wilkinson as herself
• Kevin Michael Richardson as Stan
• Heidi Montag as herself
• Spencer Pratt as himself
• Kim Kardashian as herself
• Will Sasso as Doug Martin

Episodes

See also: List of How I Met Your Mother episodes.

U.S. viewership

This season is currently the second highest rated season of How I Met Your Mother in terms of viewership, at an average of 9.42 million viewers.^[3] However, it is currently the highest rated in terms of the important Adults 18-49 demographic, which is what advertisers use to determine how much a 30-second advertising spot costs. Season 4 averaged 4.0/10 in terms of rating/share in the Adults 18-49 demographic.

Critical response

Season 4 received highly positive reviews and is often considered to be the best season of the series. Michelle Zoromski of IGN gave Season 4 an overall rating of 8.5 out of 10. Michelle stated, "This fourth season seemed to settle down the chase for the titular mother. While Ted was busy dating Stella, the gang settled into many stand alone episodes which were every bit as entertaining as episodes devoted to Ted's love life," later going on to say, "A stellar Robin-Marshall episode, titled "Little Minnesota," makes it clear that these two do not get enough screen time together. With Robin homesick and unemployed (and at risk of being deported), this pairing brought out the best Robin Sparkles reference of the season, when Marshall leads a rousing karaoke version of "Let's Go to the Mall!"^[4]

Notes and References

1. 2014-03-26 . HIMYMania: The 30 Best 'How I Met Your Mother' Moments . 2023-03-28 . Rolling Stone . en-US.
2. News: July 16, 2009. Dave Itzkoff. '30 Rock' and 'Mad Men' Lead Emmy Nominations. The New York Times. February 12, 2010. August 1, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200801232529/https://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/16/30-rock-and-mad-men-top-emmy-nominations/. live.
3. Web site: Season Program Rankings from 09/22/08 through 05/17/09 . ABC Medianet . May 19, 2009 . July 3, 2009 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20090623063544/http://abcmedianet.com/web/dnr/dispDNR.aspx?id=051909_05 . June 23, 2009 . mdy-all .
4. News: May 27, 2009. Michelle Zoromski. How I Met Your Mother: Season 4 Review. IGN. April 12, 2010. November 4, 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20121104122851/http://www.ign.com/articles/2009/05/27/how-i-met-your-mother-season-4-review. live.