‘Watchmen’ Finale Draws Season High 1.6 Million Viewers
By Will Thorne
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – The season finale of “Watchmen” went out with bang both on screen and in the , drawing the show’s highest total viewership to date.
Across all of HBO’s platforms, Sunday night’s finale garnered 1.6 million total viewers, beating the premiere which drew 1.5 million. The episode, titled “See How They Fly,” by 935,000 total viewers during its live 9 p.m. telecast, also series high in that metric and a 17% improvement on the series debut. Overall, season 1 of the word-of-mouth hit is currently averaging over 7 million viewers per episode, according to , making it the premium cabler’s most watched first season of an original series since the debut season of “Big Little Lies” in 2017.
Comparing how “” has performed with HBO’s other series in more depth, the show’s finale was up 31% on the “Succession” season 2 finale, and up 25% from the 1.2 million multi-platform figure posted by the “Succession” season 2 premiere. However, the Regina King show’s finale is also down 24% on the season 2 premiere of “Westworld” from last year, which drew 2.1 million viewers.
Set in an alternate history where masked vigilantes are treated as outlaws, “Watchmen” stars King as Angela Abar, who wears two masks; one as a lead detective in the Tulsa Police Force, and another as wife and mother of three. Showrunner Damon Lindelof is the mind behind this latest adaptation of the 1980s DC comic book of the same name, written by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.
“Watchmen” season 1 was written and executive produced by Lindelof, with Nicole Kassell directing the pilot and executive producing. Stephen Williams was also a director and executive producer, with Joseph Iberti and Tom Spezialy adding to the list of EPs. The series is produced for HBO by White Rabbit in association with Warner Bros. Television, based on characters from DC.
The future of “Watchmen” is still up in the air, as both Lindelof and HBO have been keeping tight-lipped on a potential season 2. Lindelof previously told Variety that if a second season were to appear, he would likely no longer be in charge.
“I am deeply, profoundly appreciative for how well received the season has been up until now, and I don’t want to feel like I’m ungrateful, but I still don’t have any inclination whatsoever to continue the story,” Lindelof said. “And that is largely and almost exclusively based on the fact that I don’t have an idea. If I’m going to be involved in any more ‘Watchmen,’ I should be able to answer the questions, why, and why now, and the answers to those questions shouldn’t be, ‘Well, because that’s what you do, because the first one was good.’”.
