Ratings notes: ‘True Detective’ finale, ABC’s ‘Resurrection’ premiere, ‘Once Upon a Time’s’ return

There’s quite a bit of good stuff to get to here when we are talking about the ratings for Sunday night, in particular when it comes to some shows that really managed to both surprise and impress.

What’s one of those shows? “True Detective,” which was deceptively the biggest hit of 2014 so far. HBO’s live ratings have never really been a full indication of their shows’ success, but this is especially true in this instance. The finale drew a series-high 3.5 million viewers, but when you look at the average gross audience, which combines repeat viewings and streams on the HBO GO app (which gave some viewers trouble last night), the show brought in a pretty impressive haul of over 11 million viewers an episode. That’s the best for any HBO show in a first season since “Six Feet Under.” Pretty darn impressive when you remember that “Game of Thrones” and “True Blood” are also both in the network’s stable.

As for some other important ratings news:

1. Who expected that “Resurrection” was going to be the enormous beast for ABC that it was? Despite airing against “The Walking Dead,” the show brought in a 3.6 rating in the 18-49 demographic and also 13+ million viewers. Let’s hope that the network sticks to keeping this a limited series, since that is probably what gets so many viewers to actually tune in.

2. “Once Upon a Time” delivered a solid 2.3 in its return to television, a sign that ABC got the scheduling right this time. “Revenge” also managed to actually win the 10:00 p.m. hour in its first go of things there with a 1.9, which was probably helped by its lead-in.

3. “Cosmos” on Fox delivered a solid 2.1 in its premiere, which was also yet another sign that Fox really loves anything on Sunday night that has Seth MacFarlane’s name on it.

Photo: HBO