‘Westworld’ opens pretty well for HBO

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Some early ratings have come in for the premiere of “Westworld” on HBO, and they look pretty strong — but beware of imprecise comparisons to previous shows on the channel.



The series drew 3.3 million viewers over three airings Sunday night and early viewing on HBO’s streaming platforms. That’s the best series premiere on HBO since “True Detective” put up that same multi-play number in January 2014. (It’s unclear from contemporary sources whether “True Detective’s” 3.3 million includes streaming or only linear viewing.)

What we don’t have yet is the audience for just the on-air premiere — which isn’t what HBO cares about but provides better a like-to-like comparison with other shows — or any demographic breakdown for the audience. Full Sunday cable ratings will be out on Tuesday.

The first airing of the “True Detective” series premiere pulled in 2.33 million viewers and added another million with multiple plays. That could be a clue as to “Westworld’s” premiere numbers, since typically in these cases the first airing pulls in well over half the cumulative audience.

A premiere of 2 million viewers or so would compare favorably to recent HBO dramas like “Vinyl” (764,000) and “The Night Of” (774,000) and would be in line with the debut of “Game of Thrones” (2.2 million) in 2011. “Thrones” had a fairly strong showing over multiple airings, pulling in 4.2 million total viewers for its premiere night.