Hyped for many months, HBO’s “Vinyl” premiered to modest ratings Sunday night.
Per Nielsen L+SD data, the two-hour series opener drew a soft 0.25 adults 18-49 rating and 764,000 total viewers.
Circumstances were not ideal for “Vinyl.” Its first hour competed with “The Walking Dead,” while its second hour was positioned against “Talking Dead.” It was opposite the NBA All-Star Game for the duration of the broadcast.
Said broadcast, moreover, came on Valentine’s Day.
Those factors do not, however, transform the numbers into strong ones. They are underwhelming.
As a premium, subscription-based network, HBO can look more notably at factors like brand prestige and time-shifted/streamed/on-demand viewership than ad-supported broadcast networks. The aforementioned numbers are not an automatic death sentence for “Vinyl.”
They do nonetheless paint a very pessimistic portrait of the show’s ability to become a live+same-day hit.
