Ratings: ‘The Leftovers’ season 2 finale boosts season 3 odds

When you have the sort of numbers that “The Leftovers” has drawn over the course of its second season, any little increase that you have can help to turn things around. This is why we’re pleased to report that with Sunday night’s season 2 finale on HBO, we saw the highest numbers of the season.

Overall, the Justin Theroux series drew a 0.5 rating in the 18-49 demographic and close to a million viewers, increases of around 20% and 15% from the week before. This was also the third straight week that the show has improved in both measures from the week before, which is a very encouraging sign from a series that at one point appeared pretty dead, and not in a Kevin Garvey sense where he can sing karaoke to come back. The show has almost doubled some of the numbers from where it was in October.

Is there a slight caveat to the finale ratings? Sure, if you consider the fact that this is the first time since the season premiere that the show did not air against “The Walking Dead.” Even with that in mind, remember the premiere only drew a .3 and 710,000 viewers, so don’t just assume that the zombie show is the main reason why the numbers were down. People are coming here because they caught up after hearing so many wonderful things about what we recently called one of the best seasons of any show over the past several years.

We’re not going to officially call just yet that HBO will order a third season (there are DVR / On-Demand / HBO NOW figures to be compiled), but we’re feeling relatively confident at this point that “The Leftovers” will get at least one more kick at the can.

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