‘The Night Of’ premiere ratings solid for HBO

Given how much we enjoyed and appreciated “The Night Of” on HBO, of course the excitement was palpable for us to see the ratings, even if we knew they would be super-skewed and complicated. After all, this show was made available very early On Demand and on HBO GO / HBO NOW, so there was less of a reason for viewers to check it out live.

Thankfully, HBO was nice enough to release just about all of the numbers for their premiere, including those from streaming providers. Per Deadline, the series starring John Turturro drew 1.3 million viewers across three separate plays on the network, a very nice start to the series in terms of live viewership. Meanwhile, another 1.5 million viewers caught the show thanks to all of the streaming options beforehand. That means 2.8 million viewers in total; demo numbers aren’t as clear yet, but this is premium cable and that really doesn’t matter as much.

The great news about this show is that it is perfectly suited to go viral and increase in success over the course of the summer, since it had a rather soft premiere in terms of mass exposure. It doesn’t have many big-name stars, it is coming on the heels of “Game of Thrones,” and sometimes, shows like this need to spread via word of mouth. This could be something akin to “True Detective” season 1, which increased with popularity as the show goes on.

For us, we actually think the premiere episode (read the review here) was better than the one for “True Detective,” and we’re not just saying that because of a controversial ending.

We’ll keep watch on what some of these numbers are the remainder of the season; for now, be sure to head over here to get further updates via our CarterMatt Newsletter. These are sent out on a weekly basis. (Photo: HBO.)