Cable Ratings: HBO's Sunday Huge With ‘Hung' Premiere
True Blood delivers series high ratings
By Alex Weprin -- Broadcasting & Cable, 6/30/2009 11:27:32 AM
The series premiere of HBO's Hung delivered 2.8 million viewers in its 10 p.m. timeslot Sunday. When its midnight replay is added, the series drew 3.7 million viewers its first night. That makes Hung, a drama about a down-on-his-luck high school coach who becomes a gigolo, the highest rated HBO series premiere since John From Cincinnati, which premiered in June 2007 after The Sopranos series finale. (Click here to watch a clip and find out what critics thought of Hung.)
While John From Cincinnati didn't last past the first season, Hung could take a cue from its own lead-in, True Blood. The vampire drama premiered last September with just 1.44 million viewers, but has since morphed into the network's top original drama.
Sunday's installment of True Blood was the series' best, bringing in 3.7 million viewers in its 9 p.m. timeslot, and 5.1 million once the 11 p.m. replay is factored in.
