True Blood Growing Faster Than The Sopranos

According to HBO, there’s a new boss in town. True Blood has grown its Sunday night viewership by 66 percent since its debut in September, a faster viewership increase than previous HBO heavy-hitter The Sopranos (their big ratings increase came during the second season).

The series averages 6.8 million viewers each week. As is typical for HBO, the viewership is scattered around in-demand viewing and reruns aired at different times during the week. But Lombardo said he’s noticed that more people are tuning in for the Sunday episode premieres, a sign of anticipation among fans.

HBO usually spends a big promotion budget to get people to watch the first episode of a new series, and hope enough viewers are satisfied to come back is subsequent weeks. The “True Blood” promotion included some approaches unusual for the network, including setting up fake Web sites and advertising a fake drink called `Tru Blood.”

But the series started relatively quietly and has built its audience week-to-week, Lombardo said. Even notable successes like “The Sopranos” grew more slowly, with a big jump coming at the start of the second season, he said.

“We haven’t gone out and made a lot of noise about it because every week the numbers would come in and we’d say, `Wow, is this true? Will this sustain?'” Lombardo said.

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