Last week, the second episode of “The Royals” avoided a major post-premiere viewership decline–and actually gained in the adults 18-49 demographic–despite receiving reduced lead-in support from E! flagship “Keeping Up with the Kardashians.”
Lead-in support for this week’s “The Royals” was weaker still. This week’s episode then had the additional difficulty of competing with the final 30 minutes of AMC’s “The Walking Dead” season finale and first thirty minutes of its “Talking Dead” companion series. While not a massive ratings draw, NBC’s opposing iHeartRadio Music Awards show also represented heightened week-over-week competition.
In the face of that challenging circumstance, E!’s scripted “The Royals” suffered significant declines in adults 18-49 and total viewership.
Sunday’s episode, which was the series’ third on record, drew a dramatically reduced 0.33 adults 18-49 rating with 825,000 viewers. The marks trail those of last week–0.60 rating, 1.321 million viewers–by 45% and 38%, respectively.
As previously noted, lead-in “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” which faced “The Walking Dead” and the iHeart Awards for the duration of its broadcast, also slipped this week. Down from last week’s episode, which scored a 1.05 with 2.081 million viewers, this week’s “Kardashians” drew a 0.99 with 1.891 million viewers.