‘Winning Time’ Season 2 Premiere Audience Dips 30% From Season 1 Debut Across HBO & Max
deadline.comEXCLUSIVE: Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty returned to HBO on Sunday with 629,000 total viewers tuning in for the Season 2 premiere across Max and linear telecasts.
That’s a bit of a fall from grace, considering the 901,000 people who tuned in for the Season 1 debut in March 2022. By May of that year, Season 1 managed to amass 1.6M same-day viewers for the finale. (Although, it might be worth nothing that Season 1 also most likely benefitted from the buzz of March Madness, when basketball is already top of mind for audiences.) HBO generally banks on the growth potential from delayed viewing, as the network previously reported that new episodes of a series tend to only draw 10%-20% of their total viewership on Sunday nights.
Season 1 episodes of Winning Time went on to average about 1.2M viewers per episode on premiere nights, which grew to 6M viewers per episode over time.
Other recent examples include The White Lotus, which premiered in 2021 to 944,000 total viewers. The season averaged about 1.1M viewers on premiere night, and episodes grew to about 9.3M average viewers when all was said and done.
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