TV Ratings: ‘Who Is America?’ Grows 25 Percent in Week 2

Episode two of Sacha Baron Cohen’s Who Is America? on Showtime grew its audience by 25 percent vs. the series premiere, gains that were almost entirely due to delayed viewing of one form or another.

Per the pay cabler, the July 22 episode has accumulated 3.5 million viewers across all platforms (on-air including replays, DVR, on demand and streaming) in the seven days since it aired. That’s up from 2.8 million over the same period for the premiere.

That’s impressive week-to-week growth, but what is really remarkable is just how much of the total audience came to the episode after its initial airing. 

The on-air debut for episode two of Who Is America? drew only 161,000 viewers, not quite half of the 327,000 who tuned in for the series premiere’s first airing. It made up a good amount of that decline with three days of delayed viewing, growing to 352,000 (vs. 425,000 in live-plus-3 for the premiere). Even the three-day figure, though, is only about 10 percent of the total.

Related Stories

TV

TV Ratings: 'Succession' Hits Series Highs for Final Episode

TV

'Yellowjackets' Star on Filming the Cannibalism and Death in Season 2 Finale: "Seven Hours of Crying"

Given all that, it’s no surprise that Showtime says episode two of Who Is America? had more catch-up viewing than any other series on the network in 2018. There isn’t a ton of data on how much streaming adds to a show’s total audience, but in Nielsen’s live-plus-7 ratings, most broadcast and cable shows collect at least a third of their seven-day audience the night they air.

Showtime also says week two of Who Is America? drove more signups for its streaming service than any other week in 2018. 

Eight more days of catch-up on the series premiere added 900,000 more viewers, bringing its total to 3.7 million.

For what it’s worth — probably a small fraction of the eventual total — the July 29 Who Is America? was up 35 percent week to week for its initial airing, drawing 218,000 people.