Will Watchmen return for another season? Based on the ratings, there’s little doubt HBO would love to bring it back, writes TVMoJoe
Hong Chau and Jeremy Irons in Watchmen. Photo: HBO HBO’s Watchmen wrapped its first season Sunday night with its largest same-day audience yet. Per Nielsen and HBO ratings data, the Damon Lindelof–created adaptation of the iconic graphic novel drew 1.6 million viewers across HBO’s linear and digital platforms, including 935,000 for the show’s 9 p.m. linear telecast.
The show’s linear audience for the finale grew 14 percent versus last week’s episode and 17 percent compared to the October 20 series premiere , while HBO says digital viewership leapt 31 percent between premiere and finale. More impressively, HBO estimates Watchmen’s cumulative audience currently stands at more than 7 million viewers per episode, including replays and delayed digital viewing.
The big question now: Will Watchmen return for another season? HBO isn’t saying anything about future cycles of the show, with a network rep declining to comment on the series’ fate. Based on the ratings, however, there’s little doubt the network would love to bring it back. Though the show’s same-day linear numbers don’t qualify it as any sort of blockbuster, they’re solid enough for a new premium cable drama in 2019.
What could be complicating things, or at least delaying an announcement, is Lindelof’s lack of clarity about whether he wants to do another season of the show. Echoing comments he’s made since before the show premiered, the writer/producer told Vulture that he worked on this season as if it was a self-contained entity, one not requiring a follow-up — at least not from him.
Still, in other interviews, Lindelof hasn’t completely slammed the door on a return, hinting he might be willing to do so if he came up exactly the right idea. However, he seems at peace with the notion that someone else might take the storytelling reigns, perhaps with new seasons existing as chapters in an anthology, similar to HBO’s True Detective or FX’s Fargo. “I would love to see someone who is not a white dude taking a shot at Watchmen — a woman or a person of color or both,” he said.
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
HBO Confirms 'Euphoria' Will Return in 2020What does the future look like for Rue and Jules?
Read more »
HBO Max Announces 12 Dates of Christmas, a Holiday-Themed Reality Dating Show Set in a CastleThe series, set to premiere next year, is inspired by Christmas rom coms past and present
Read more »
How Watchmen Accomplished the Near ImpossibleHBO's Watchmen told a masterful story over the course of nine episodes
Read more »
'Watchmen' gets highest ratings yet for its finaleHere's another wrinkle in the question of whether Watchmen will get a second season. Sunday's finale, 'See How They Fly,'…
Read more »
HBO's 'Watchmen' site hints at Lube Man's identity after finaleHBO's Watchmen site hints Lube Man's identity after finale
Read more »
Damon Lindelof explains why Watchmen season 2 might not happen'Nothing Ever Ends,' goes the famous Watchmen tagline. But HBO's Watchmen series might end sooner than fans expected. Despite the…
Read more »