According to The Hollywood Reporter:
HBO announced the renewal of its entire summer original programming lineup, ordering another round of freshman comedy “Hung,” veteran comedy “Entourage” and hit vampire drama “True Blood.”
With ratings numbers like these for last week’s episode, “Hard-Hearted Hannah” is there any doubt that it would be renewed?:
True Blood (9:03pm, 50 minutes)
– 4.0 million viewers
– 2.4/4 HH
– 2.0/6 A18-49?
At a wild guess, HBO was waiting for a decision on “Hung” in order to decide if they whole line up could be announced at once.
According to THR:
“True Blood” has averaged 3.8 million viewers (11.2 when you add repeats, DVR and On Demand viewing), “Hung” has averaged 3.1 million (10.2 million cume) and “Entourage” brings in about 3.0 million (7.4 million cume).
But you can’t really ‘average’ a series whose numbers are climbing weekly. Oddly, those numbers would have shot True Blood into the top 20 cable shows nestling in between ‘The Food Network Star 5″ and one of the million “Spongebob”s except they only list the ‘advertising supported shows’
Top 20 advertiser supported cable network television shows for the week ending July 26, 2009:
| Rank |
Programs |
Net |
Day |
Viewers (Live+SD) (000s) |
| 1 |
BURN NOTICE |
USA |
Thu |
6,803 |
| 2 |
THE CLOSER |
TNT |
Mon |
6,601 |
| 3 |
NASCAR SPRINT CUP |
ESPN |
Sun |
6,487 |
| 4 |
ROYAL PAINS |
USA |
Thu |
6,205 |
| 5 |
WWE ENTERTAINMENT |
USA |
Mon |
5,275 |
| 6 |
WIZARDS OF WAVERLY PLACE |
DSNY |
Fri |
5,047 |
| 7 |
WWE ENTERTAINMENT |
USA |
Mon |
5,036 |
| 8 |
NCIS |
USA |
Mon |
4,871 |
| 9 |
NATIONWIDE POST RACE |
ESPN |
Sun |
4,869 |
| 10 |
HANNAH MONTANA |
DSNY |
Sun |
4,797 |
| 11 |
LAW & ORDER: CI (ORIG) |
USA |
Sun |
4,633 |
| 12 |
LAW & ORDER: SVU |
USA |
Sun |
4,172 |
| 13 |
IN PLAIN SIGHT |
USA |
Sun |
4,163 |
| 14 |
SPONGEBOB |
NICK |
Mon |
4,158 |
| 15 |
HANNAH MONTANA |
DSNY |
Tue |
4,083 |
| 16 |
SPONGEBOB |
NICK |
Tue |
4,056 |
| 17 |
SPONGEBOB |
NICK |
Mon |
4,018 |
| 18 |
FOOD NETWORK STAR 5 |
FOOD |
Sun |
4,008 |
| 19 |
SPONGEBOB |
NICK |
Mon |
3,834 |
| 20 |
SONNY WITH A CHANCE |
DSNY |
Sun |
3,805 |
–
Nielsen Ratings Data: ©2009 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
Congratulations to Alan and all the hard working, talented and wonderful cast and crew (and behind the scenes folks) who make True Blood the best show on TV! [Editor’s Note: Not that I’m prejudiced or anything…] Congratulations to HBO for a winning Sunday lineup. But most of all, YAAAY FOR US, THE FANS! We get another year of incredible TV.
Sources: THR and TV by the Numbers
(Photo credit: HBO)
Recently Alan Ball was interviewed by SFX Magazine where he presented some teasers for fans as to what they can expect yo see on HBO’s vampire series True Blood. One thing that Alan does mention is that he strays away on some things from Charlaine Harris‘ books , which the show is based upon. When asked as to what other supernatural creatures that fans may encounter in True Blood, Alan states that there are no ghosts however, others will show up.
