TV Ratings: ‘Succession’ Season 2 Premiere Draws Series High 1.2 Million Viewers

By Will Thorne

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – “Succession” is proving to be a ratings success.

The darkly comic HBO drama premiered its second season Sunday to a series high 1.2 million viewers, beating the previous high of 997,000 for the season 1 finale. Sunday’s viewership figure is also up an impressive 32% on the show’s series premiere which hit 918,000 viewers.

The episode averaged 612,000 viewers during its live airing at 9 p.m, with replays and streaming bringing in the remaining 588,000.

Season 2 of “” follows the Roy family as they struggle to retain control of their empire, and while the future looks increasingly uncertain, it is the past that threatens to ultimately destroy them.

“Succession” stars Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong, Hiam Abbass, Sarah Snook, Kieran Culkin, Alan Ruck, Nicholas Braun, Matthew Macfadyen, Peter Friedman, Rob Yang, J. Smith Cameron, Dagmara Dominczyk, and Arian Moayed. Jesse Armstrong created the series and serves as showrunner and executive producer. Adam McKay, Frank Rich, Kevin Messick, Will Ferrell, Jane Tranter, Mark Mylod, and Tony Roche also serve as executive producers.

In his review of season 2 , Variety TV critic Daniel D’Addario deemed that the show’s second season is “vastly more interesting” than its first, adding that ’s Roy family patriarch is a “compelling monster of entitlement whom the show has wisely brought back to exceedingly rude health after sidelining him for much of Season 1.”