Ratings: ‘True Detective’ season 2 premiere up, ‘The Last Ship’ down

Were most of the cable ratings Sunday night a disappointment? We imagine that much of it depends on how you look at it.

For example, let’s start here with “True Detective,” a show that many were frankly waiting to fail almost from the moment Vince Vaughn was announced as part of the cast and some reviews came in that were a little ho-hum. The first episode did draw over 3 million viewers, and was an improvement on the series premiere. However, is this something really worth celebrating that much? The show is much more well-known now than it was then, and we feel like 3.5 million would have been more of a benchmark. It was never going to get “Game of Thrones” ratings, but still. The real debate here is whether or not the show is going to continue to draw these kind of numbers all season. (We usually talk figures in the 18-49 demo, but for HBO it really does not matter nearly as much.)

The biggest winner of the night to us may be “Ballers,” which premiered to more than 2.16 million viewers on HBO. When you consider the numbers for most of their comedies, that is more or less enough to make it the network’s new #1 comedy. Even the great “Silicon Valley” has only had one episode make it over the 2 million mark, and that is with the “Game of Thrones” lead-in.

Elsewhere, the news was not so good for “The Last Ship” on TNT. Either the hiatus or the competition against “True Detective” hurt it, as TVbythenumbers claims that it premiered with just a 0.7 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 2.94 million viewers. (The demo matters here.) It lost to an episode of “Naked and Afraid,” and that show probably costs a fraction of the money to make.

To see our review of the “True Detective” premiere right away, head over to the link here! Also, you can sign up to get some other TV news on all we cover, sent right over to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: HBO.)