Ratings: ‘The Leftovers’ season 2 starts out low for HBO

How many viewers were leftover to watch “The Leftovers” on HBO Sunday night? Let’s just say that the second go-around for the Damon Lindelof series did not meet our personal expectations.

Per a new report from Deadline, 713,000 viewers chose to watch the series live on the network Sunday. We personally don’t focus as much on the demo in these particular reports, mostly because of the fact that HBO is not so beholden to advertisers. These are not the sort of ratings that HBO is going to have a barbecue party for, even the awkward one that we saw for John and the Murphy family at the end of the premiere. This is a lower total by a wide margin than any episode from season 1, when the show benefited from a “True Blood” lead-in.

What is the biggest cause of the massive viewer drop? We know that some out there will likely blame either the fall TV season or NFL football, but we don’t think it is that simple. The first season was just so depressing that we think that viewers wanted to see that through, but now that more than a year has passed since it aired, some out there may be ready to take in a deep breath and move on. This is not an easy show to recommit to thanks to everything we saw in its past … even with a slightly lighter tone one episode into the second season. (Read our full review here.)

What we will say is that with all of the competition on Sundays, it is probably unfair to measure “The Leftovers” based on live ratings alone. We’ll have to see what happens when DVR recordings, multiple airings, and On-Demand viewers are accounted for.

Why do you think viewership has declined to the level it has? Share in the comments, and head over here to get some other TV news on all we cover via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: HBO.)