‘Westworld’ Season 3 Finale Down 18% From Last Season

By Will Thorne

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – “Westworld” has gone offline for the time being, as its bumper season 3 finale delivered a small ratings boost from the penultimate episode, but was ultimately still down roughly 18% from the season 2 curtain call.

Sunday’s episode, which featured multiple (potential) major character deaths, drew 1.8 million total viewers across all of HBO’s platforms, which represents a 13% bump from last week and a digital viewership high for the season. That number also matches the audience for the season 3 premiere, which was itself down a whopping 57% from last season. 

The finale scored 888,000 viewers during its live broadcast on HBO, its highest tally since the premiere, which saw 901,000 tune in. For comparison, the season 1 finale drew 2.2 million live viewers. 

Per HBO, the season 3 premiere is currently approaching 10 million viewers overall. While the premiere was down significantly from prior seasons, it still stands as one of the premium cabler’s strongest debuts from this season, outperforming “The Outsider” by 24% and the “Watchmen” premiere by 13%.

“Westworld” has already been renewed for season 4 , and co-showrunners Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy discussed with Variety where the show will go from here after two post-credit scenes threw a host among the humans, so to speak, and how many seasons the show might eventually last.

“I think we would anticipate seeing some or many of these faces in very different circumstances, and very different relationships,” Nolan teased.

Season 3 saw Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) and company in action outside the park for the first time. Plenty of familiar faces were back in action, including Tessa Thompson, Thandie Newton, Jeffrey Wright and Luke Hemsworth. Aaron Paul was the big new addition this season, playing human construction worker Caleb, who had far more to him than meets the eye.