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June 17, 2013
 

THE SKED: “True Blood” Premiere A Bit Drained

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Written by: Mitch Salem
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The Season 6 premiere of HBO’s TRUE BLOOD wasn’t quite as hearty as last year’s launch, with 4.5M total viewers for the initial broadcast (demo details aren’t available yet, although it should be around a 2.5 in 18-49s), compared to 5.2M last season, plus another 1.1M viewers for the 11PM rebroadcast.  That’s below last week’s Game of Thrones finale, which hit 5.4M viewers in its first airing.  (True Blood did, however, beat the Game of Thrones Season 3 premiere, which had 4.4M viewers–but which, to be fair, aired against the gargantuan season finale of The Walking Dead).

It’s never great for a show to decline, but this is somewhat angels-on-head-of-pin analysis, since the True Blood number is still very, very good for a show that’s only available in 1/3 of US homes, and since HBO revenue isn’t based on advertising sales and thus only indirectly affected by ratings.  True Blood would have to fall a long way before it was in any kind of genuine trouble.

 



About the Author

Mitch Salem
MITCH SALEM has worked on the business side of the entertainment industry for 20 years, as a senior business affairs executive and attorney for such companies as NBC, ABC, USA, Syfy, Bravo, and BermanBraun Productions, and before that, at the NY law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges. During all that, he has more or less constantly been going to the movies and watching TV, and writing about both since the 1980s. His film reviews also currently appear on screened.com and the-burg.com. In addition, he is co-writer of an episode of the television series "Felicity."