It’s becoming a rather fun wait-and-see to learn how HBO series are really performing as its audience becomes more and more scattered.
Save the premiere night draw of Game of Thrones, the pay cable network doesn’t see truly impressive ratings until on-demand, encores and, increasingly, its various OTT platforms factor in. In the case of Big Little Lies, that factoring is apparently quite substantial. A Monday release from the network says that more than 7 million viewers have been tuning in to Big Little Lies once all eyes are tallied.
Six weeks into its brief, seven-week run, Big Little Lies is outpacing how many viewers summer 2016 breakout The Night Of was pulling before its finale. That limited series, considered likely to reappear in some manifestation down the line, ultimately averaged 8.2 million viewers for HBO.
Available data also implies that Big Little Lies is gaining viewers as the finale approaches. Sunday’s episode reached 2 million viewers on premiere night. Most first-run episodes have hovered around the 1-million mark, with live-plus-3 improving it to only 1.8 million viewers — translating to what seems to be a smaller and smaller reliance on DVR.
But Big Little Lies is signing off almost as soon as it arrived. This coming April 2 marks the series finale.
