Positioned against the Oscars, the second episode of HBO’s “Big Little Lies” suffered a big drop in live+same-day viewership.
According to live+same-day data posted by Showbuzz, Sunday’s episode drew a mere 0.19 adults 18-49 rating and averaged 0.56 million total viewers. Last week’s premiere posted a 0.31 in the demo and 1.13 million in viewership.
It is hard to ignore the potential impact of the Academy Awards competition; Sunday’s ceremony drew nearly 33 million viewers. “Big Little Lies,” moreover, features actresses like Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon that are popular with Oscars viewers (and the HBO fanbase, in general, likely has significant overlap with typical Academy Awards watchers).
It may be incorrect, however, to assume that the entirety of this week’s drop is due to the competition. There is certainly a possibility that some of last week’s viewers were not hooked by the premiere.
This episode’s multi-platform performance and the show’s live+same-day performance in subsequent weeks will help illuminate the matter.
HBO’s other Sunday night programs also suffered big Oscar Night drops.
Sunday’s “Big Little Lies” led into “Girls,” which drew a 0.19 rating and 0.38 million in viewership (way down from last week’s 0.27 and 0.71 million).
HBO’s lineup also included “Crashing” (0.10, 0.20 million vs. 0.17, 0.54 million last week) and “Last Week Tonight” (0.27, 0.72 million vs. 0.43, 1.25 million last week).
