The season nine “Curb Your Enthusiasm” premiere was HBO’s top show Sunday night.
According to live+same-day data posted by Showbuzz, the “Foisted!” episode drew a 0.53 adults 18-49 rating and averaged 1.54 million overall viewers.
The viewership figure is down from the season eight premiere, which drew 1.71 million viewers on July 10, 2011, but the comparison is definitely not apples-to-apples.
In addition to airing in a stronger era for live+same-day ratings, that episode benefited from strong “True Blood” lead-in support (2.8 in the demo, 5.04 million in total viewership).
This week’s episode did not receive support Lead-in “The Deuce” drew a modest 0.27 rating and 0.94 million viewers in the 9PM hour.
It may, accordingly, make more sense to compare this week’s numbers to those of the season 7 premiere, which also aired without a big lead-in. That episode drew just 1.10 million viewers on September 20, 2009.
HBO’s Sunday also included “Vice Principals” (0.34 rating, 0.89 million viewers) and “Last Week Tonight” (0.43 rating, 1.27 million viewers).
