Cable Ratings: Big Little Lies, NOS4A2, Fear the Walking Dead & more

Big Little Lies

There’s a lot of great stuff to get into in today’s Cable Ratings, including some shows that are retaining viewers better than anyone would’ve assumed.

With that in mind, let’s take another look now at Big Little Lieswhich did a fantastic job in posting 1.47 million live viewers for its second new episode. It’s rare for a show to grow its audience following the premiere, especially for a show in its second week that’s already had a lot of word-of-mouth. It speaks to the quality of the HBO series … but then also the notion that viewers may not have collectively realized that it was on as of yet at this point last week.

For those wondering, Sunday’s new episode drew the second-largest total audience for Big Little Lies to date. On average, it’s up more than 20% versus the show’s average in season 1.

As for some other ratings intel worth noting at the moment…

Fear the Walking Dead stabilizes – We always worry about this show careening off of the nearest cliff, but for episode 3 there was actually a little bit of improvement! Its 0.5 rating in the 18-49 demographic was steady, and it actually improved upward to 1.76 million viewers. Could this be the season that finally gives us a sense of where this series is going to land ratings-wise? It seems possible, and it’s coming off of many of years where the story was in great flux.

For some more Fear the Walking Dead video insight, check out our video all about Dwight below! Be sure to subscribe to CarterMatt on YouTube and view our official show playlist.

Good news for NOS4A2… While we don’t necessarily think that the AMC show is winning the title for best-rated show of the summer, Sunday’s installment crept back up to a 0.3 rating. The show is actually holding firm to much of its audience through three episodes and that bodes really well for its future. AMC is still in a spot where they need to identify some significant, long-term programming. The Walking Dead is pretty long in the tooth and is far from what it was. They need to identify some other stuff to keep them sustainable.

Subpar start for City on a Hill – Showtime’s new Boston-set legal drama delivered just over 500,000 total viewers. While it could’ve been worse (and we’ve seen that with dramas at this network), we don’t know how you can look at these numbers if you’re a network executive and feel reasonably confident about what you’re seeing.

What about Claws? – Sunday’s episode pulled a 0.3 rating in the rating, down more than 15% versus where the show was in season 2. Claws has lost a big chunk of its live ratings momentum this year, despite having a devoted audience and a lot of memorable antics. Is interest fading, or is it just interest in watching live? It may be the latter more than the former, but we’re still confident in its season 4 future.

What did you watch on television Tuesday night? Be sure to share right now in the comments, and come back soon for more. (Photo: HBO.)

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