Twin Peaks ratings surprisingly low, but Showtime boasts subscriber gains

The Twin Peaks ratings are in now for Showtime, and there is one thing that they show you above all else: Viewership versus hype. Also, they may prove further that there is not a huge pool of people watching television live these days, especially in terms of premium cable.

In terms of just the live+same day linear numbers, the Twin Peaks premiere on Sunday generated just over 500,000 viewers, and then also a 0.2 rating to go along with it in the 18-49 demographic. While on paper this may not look impressive, there are some other variables worth considering here.

For example, remember for a moment that Showtime doesn’t measure their success by viewers per se; it is more in terms of how many people actually sign up to watch the network. They are saying at present that this show drove more subscribers to their streaming service in one day (Sunday) than any other day in its history. That’s a huge achievement that does show the value of bringing the property back, given that there were potentially millions at play there just in terms of a single month’s subscription.

Another thing to certainly remember is that these ratings are only calculated traditional viewers checking out the show live, and they don’t factor in DVR viewers or people checking out the show in non-traditional means. It may take a little bit of time in order to assemble the full picture. Given that Showtime already released two more episodes of Twin Peaks online for subscribers to check out, they are clearly not so concerned about linear ratings as they are delivering something that is great for their subscribers. There’s less incentive to give them all the episodes at once, since you want to ensure that you have them on the network for a span of several months at a time.

In the end, we’ll see what happens with Twin Peaks ratings the rest of the way, just as it will also be interesting to see how the remainder of this show unfolds. Few series take as many creative risks as this one, and with David Lynch at the helm, it may get even more atmospheric and weird from here on out.

What do you think about the Twin Peaks ratings at present? Be sure to share some of your thoughts below!

Meanwhile, head over to the link here to get some further news when it comes to the series. (Photo: Showtime.)