Cum s-a comparat audiența „Succession” cu alte hituri HBO?

From all the buzz on social media, magazines and newspapers, you might have thought Serie, which wrapped up a successful four-year run on HBO Sunday night, was one of the top-rated shows of all time.

It wasn’t. In fact, it isn’t even one of the all-time top shows on HBO. But buzz can elevate a program in that way, making it seem more popular than it is. In these days of fractured viewing, with people enjoying hundreds of entertainment options at their fingertips, buzz makes a show stand out far more than viewership numbers ever will again.

Deci, cum Serie compare to HBO’s past hits, several of which rank among the most-watched programs ever on cable?

The dark satire about the dysfunctional family that owns a media empire drew a very respectable 2.9 million total viewers for the series finale, averaging a series-high 2.928 million total viewers, according to HBO. That includes viewership on Max, the recently rebranded app that used to be HBO Max, as well as linear TV telecasts Sunday. It was up 68% from the season three finale, which averaged 1.7 million viewers, and it bested the show’s previous series high of 2.75 million for episode six.

HBO claims that the show’s cumulative average viewership, which includes repeats on linear TV and viewings on Max, is 8.7 million for this season, up 1.5 million over season three.

That’s clearly a big success for HBO and something to brag about at a time when even sports, which have long been a universal television draw, are seeing ratings declines. But it probably won’t rank among HBO’s all-time top hits.

By comparison, the network’s No. 1 show of all time, Game of Thrones, drew 19.3 million viewers in its finale four years ago. Up until that point, The Sopranos had held the record for most-watched episode of all time on the pay cable network, averaging 13.43 million viewers for its fourth-season debut in 2002.

Sopranos drew 11.9 million total viewers for its finale in 2007.

For another comparison, the series final of Sex and the City, another seminal HBO program, averaged 10.6 million total viewers in 2004. And even a more mid-level program, Westului, drew a cumulative average across platforms of 12 million back in the mid-2010s.

The Changing TV Landscape

All this is not to downplay the success of Serie but simply to contextualize its appeal. The show had a very rabid core audience who posted frequently on Twitter and other social feeds, making the program trend—but that doesn’t reflect a more universal draw.

Serie is very much a reflection of its era. It’s extremely hard to popularize a mainstream hit these days with so many outlets and programs for viewers to choose from. Back in the heyday of SATC și Sopranos, people had fewer choices—there was no original programming on Netflix
NFLX
, Hulu or other streamers to compete with, and TV viewing was largely contained to cable and broadcast.

When the era of peak TV arrived, the period that began more than five years ago as streamers, cable and everyone in between began producing content for consumption, viewership levels for just about everything have dropped. Very few programs are capable of drawing 10 million viewers because there’s just too much going on—we’re surrounded by constant choices. By comparison, AppleTV+’s Ted lasso, which gets all kinds of buzz, has a much smaller audience than Serie.

So Serie’s success is graded on a different scale, and it clearly was a hit; just a different kind.