'True Blood' finale audience doubles last season's ender

Against an NFL opener and the VMAs, 'True Blood' draws 5.1 million

By Daniel Fienberg Tuesday, Sep 15, 2009 4:48 PM

Michelle Forbes in the 'True Blood' finale

Credit: HBO

Going head-to-head with the season premiere of Sunday Night Football on NBC and MTV's Video Music Awards, "True Blood" closed its second season on HBO with a big audience, but no records.

In its first 9 p.m. airing on Sunday (Sept. 14), "True Blood" pulled in 5.1 million viewers, off from from the 5.3 million viewers who watched the show's Aug. 23 episode.

However, the audience was more than double the viewers who watched the first season finale last fall and a whopping 153 percent above last season's average.

Already renewed for a third season expected to air next summer, "True Blood" averaged roughly 12 million viewers per week including premiere numbers, additional telecasts, DVR playback and on-demand orders.

"Hung" finished its first season with 2.9 million viewers, slightly under the season average for the dark comedy. With its average of nearly 9 million weekly viewers across all platforms, "Hung" stands as HBO's most watched freshman series in over five years.

The third Sunday original, "Entourage," won't have its finale until October, but drew 2.6 million viewers. Its weekly cumulative audience is 8.4 million.

Daniel Fienberg
Executive Editor

A long-time member of the TCA Board and a longer-time blogger of "American Idol," Dan Fienberg writes about TV, except for when he writes about movies or sometimes writes about the Red Sox. But never music. He would sound stupid talking about music.