Watchmen Series Ratings Not As Big A Hit For HBO As You May Think

Was Watchmen as much of a TV hit for HBO as it seemed? Although the concept of making a sequel to the classic Watchmen comic seemed dubious at first, Damon Lindelof’s series proved a fruitful venture, telling a vastly different, but spiritually similar, tale within the world of Watchmen. Set in the modern era, the story revolves around Hooded Justice’s granddaughter establishing a secret relationship with none other than Dr. Manhattan, while Ozymandias desperately tries to escape an other-worldly prison populated by the creepiest of clone servants.

Far from a straight-up comic book series, HBO’s Watchmen was deeply rooted in race relations, exploring how the political landscape from the original comic created an undercurrent of racism that subsequently ushered in a new era of vigilantism within the police force. Extremely relevant to modern society, but not without plenty of mystery and a hefty dose of violence, Watchmen was a huge critical success and even attracted the attention of Barack Obama in his end-of-year greatest hits. Despite this, Lindelof came out and distanced himself from a potential second season – something many fans had already suggested would be wise, given the satisfying yet ambiguous ending of the first.

With the showrunner publicly turning down a second season without waiting to see if one was offered, you’d be forgiven for thinking Watchmen had been a ratings smash, guaranteed to be green-lit for a continuation. However, this wasn’t quite the reality of the situation. According to TVSeriesFinale (via CBR), the ratings for the current television season put Watchmen only 8th in HBO’s highest rated shows, behind the likes of Veep (6th), Big Little Lies (4th) and Barry (2nd). The continuing adventures of the glowing blue nudist did beat out His Dark Materials (18th), Silicon Valley (13th) and Ballers (12th).

While these ratings certainly don’t make Watchmen a viewership flop, and also wouldn’t have automatically ruled a second season out of contention, they perhaps don’t match up with the feverish discussion and weekly anticipation Watchmen generated, or the slew of positive reviews that followed. With that said, it’s vital to consider that where most new shows start strong with a big season premiere and then gradually lose viewers over time before an eventual level-off, Watchmen gathered pace as it went along, posting its highest rating in the final episode. HBO have seen something similar with Game of Thrones, which started slowly and turned into a behemoth of modern television. It might’ve been interesting to see how popular Watchmen could become if it were designed to run for more than a single season.

Also significant is that premiere night viewing accounted for less than 10% of Watchmen‘s total viewership, which rose to a significantly higher 8 million when accounting for catch-up viewing. With these figures, Watchmen became premium cable’s most-watched new series of 2019.

Other encouraging signs include a record debut performance across network and streaming, and very strong digital numbers compared to other HBO programming, so while Watchmen‘s viewership might not have been as big as its reputation suggests, it can certainly be considered a solid ratings success, if not a runaway one. Moreover, the introduction of the HBO Now platform means that the network can still reap the rewards of Watchmen‘s popularity via streaming. Evidently, plenty of people who didn’t see Watchmen will be hearing good things about it, perhaps from former presidents, and the series could be a strong asset for HBO’s in-house streaming service.

About The Author

Craig Elvy
(3643 Articles Published)

Craig first began contributing to Screen Rant in 2016, several years after graduating college, and has been ranting ever since, mostly to himself in a darkened room. Having previously written for various sports and music outlets, Craig’s interest soon turned to TV and film, where a steady upbringing of science fiction and comic books finally came into its own.
Craig has previously been published on sites such as Den of Geek, and after many coffee-drenched hours hunched over a laptop, part-time evening work eventually turned into a full-time career covering everything from the zombie apocalypse to the Starship Enterprise via the TARDIS.

Since joining the Screen Rant fold, Craig has been involved in breaking news stories and mildly controversial ranking lists, but now works predominantly as a features writer.
Jim Carrey is Craig’s top acting pick and favorite topics include superheroes, anime and the unrecognized genius of the High School Musical trilogy.

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