‘Dexter’ season 8, ‘Ray Donovan’ premiere set ratings records for Showtime

In case you were wondering whether or not Showtime was actually going to regret moving “Dexter” to summer this year to launch alongside “Ray Donovan,” here’s an answer for you: They’re not. The numbers are already in for the two shows, and it proves that this lineup could totally end up paying big dividends for the network all summer long.

In the case of “Dexter,” the show narrowly managed to beat out the premiere last fall for having the most-watched edition of their show ever. Overall, a total of 2.5 million people watched the 9:00 p.m. Eastern airing, and 3.2 million saw it on the night as a whole. This is a 4% increase from last fall, particularly impressive because it is fall, and the show aired against one in “True Blood” that could share some of its viewership.

As for “Ray Donovan,” the show launched to a record 1.35 million viewers, more than “Homeland” or any other drama Showtime has. This is especially impressive given that the network had made the “Ray Donovan” pilot available online for weeks now, so there were opportunities for people to go online and check the show out, even if they did not want to sit around and wait to see it air after Michael C. Hall and company. The real test for “Ray Donovan,” though, will come in several weeks; “Homeland” is such a smash now because it was able to build buzz, and Liev Schreiber will have to hope to do the same thing if he wants to be on the same sort of level. (With that being said, these ratings all but surely give “Ray Donovan” a second season.)

Are you surprised at all about these numbers, or are they what you predicted? If you want to take a look ahead at what is coming up for these shows this summer, all you have to do is click here.

Photo: Showtime