ratings

Big Little Lies’ Season Finale Hits a Ratings High

Big Little Lies. Photo: HBO

The seventh and final installment of Big Little Lies was also the HBO show’s most watched. Per early Nielsen estimates, 1.9 million same-day viewers caught the 9 p.m. telecast of the finale, easily surpassing the show’s previous ratings high of 1.4 million on March 26. What’s more, Sunday’s tune-in nearly doubled the audience for the February 19 Big Little Lies premiere, which attracted 1.1 million same-day viewers. Now, it’s unlikely the overall audience for the show doubled in seven weeks: The promise of resolution (and fear of spoilers) no doubt means some BLL viewers who’d been watching via DVR or digitally decided to tune in “live” (or nearly live) Sunday night. And the overall audience for BLL is much bigger than what Sunday’s overnight numbers suggest. HBO last week said the limited series had a gross audience-to-date of 7 million viewers per episode, including linear reruns and non-linear views, and suggested that number will likely surge over 8 million once the counting is done in a few weeks.

Big Little Lies’ Season Finale Hits a Ratings High