It was a strong Sunday night for Showtime as both rookie drama Ray Donovan and its most popular series Dexter improved upon their season-opening audiences.
Ray Donovan, starring Liev Schrieber as a Hollywood fixer whose family life needs even more fixing of its own as his father (Jon Voight) exits jail after a 20-year stint, became the first Showtime original series to improve on its debut performance with its second installment. The July 7 episode garnered 1.56 million watchers in the 10 p.m. hour, according to Nielsen data, a 15% gain from the 1.35 million who saw its linear bow a week ago. Factoring in encores at 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. (on July 8), Donovan delivered 2.2 million viewers.
Thus far during its premiere week, Donovan is pacing 49% ahead of Homeland's freshman season premiere week, according to officials at the premium network. All told, the premiere has tallied 4.25 million viewers over various encores and on-demand sessions. Final data for week one -- excluding live+7 -- will be available in the upcoming days.
Click here to read the full story at Multichannel News.
