Showtime’s Yellowjackets buzzed its way to a series high in viewers for its second season premiere.
The Emmy-nominated drama debuted to about 2 million viewers across all platforms, a series high for the show and more than double the audience for the series premiere in November 2021. It was also up 40 percent over the first season finale in January 2022. The figure includes both the on-air debut on Sunday night and streaming on Showtime platforms, where the season two premiere became available on Friday.
Showtime also says the Yellowjackets premiere brought in the biggest audience for any season two debut of a series on the premium cabler since 2012, when Homeland’s second season began. The vast majority of the 2 million viewers came from streaming, as the on-air premiere gathered only 226,000 viewers — about 11 percent of the weekend total. A couple of on-air replays contributed a bit more to the total, but similar to season one, most viewers streamed the show. (Season one averaged 275,000 viewers for the first airings on Showtime’s main cable channel.)
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The episode also set an all-time high for streaming and on-demand platforms among any season premiere of a Showtime series. While baseline figures aren’t available — as is usually the case with streaming data — the Paramount Global outlet says Yellowjackets outdrew the previous record holder, Dexter: New Blood.
“Yellowjackets broke records as the most streamed Showtime debut ever thanks to Ashley [Lyle], Bart [Nickerson], Jonathan [Lisco] and our extraordinary ensemble cast who brought season two to even greater heights,” said Chris McCarthy, president and CEO of Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks.
Entertainment One produces Yellowjackets. Lyle and Nickerson created the series and serve as showrunners alongside Lisco. The three executive produce along with Drew Comins of Creative Engine, Ameni Rozsa, Sarah L. Thompson and Karyn Kusama.
March 28, 8:45 a.m. Updated with linear ratings from Sunday.
