This Sunday’s “Westworld” drew a smaller live+same-day audience than the second season premiere.
According to live+same-day data posted by Showbuzz, the April 29 “Westworld” posted a 0.72 adults 18-49 rating. It averaged 1.85 million overall viewers.
The numbers trail the 0.89 rating and 2.06 million viewer mark garnered by the season two premiere.
As “Westworld” receives huge lifts from DVR, streaming, encore and on-demand viewership (not to mention generates considerable buzz), one would have a hard time denying its standing as a successful TV series. Those factors are particularly important for HBO, which generates revenue from subscriptions rather than advertising (and thus has reason to focus more on total viewership than live+same-day numbers).
It nonetheless is not breaking out as a blockbuster live+same-day attraction. This week’s live+same-day performance does not, in fact, reflect significant growth from the first season average (it was up slightly in viewers but actually down from the average adults 18-49 performance).
“Westworld” did, however, fare well from a competitive standpoint. It was Sunday’s #2 cable original in adults 18-49, trailing only AMC’s “Fear The Walking Dead.”
— “Westworld” led into “Silicon Valley” (0.46, 1.02 million) and “Barry” (0.19, 0.56 million).
