“Watchmen” hit a person best with its season — and possibly series — finale on Sunday, which scored 1.6 million viewers across all of HBO’s platforms, according to the pay TV channel.
On Oct. 20, the series premiere of the Regina King-led drama, which is Damon Lindelof’s TV sequel to Dave Gibbons and Alan Moore’s iconic graphic novel, scored 1.5 million multiplatform viewers across HBO, HBO Now and HBO Go. The episode marked the strongest digital debut for the premium cable channel since the launch of “Westworld” in 2016.
Last night, HBO’s 9 p.m. airing of the finale episode, titled “See How They Fly,” alone drew 935,000 viewers, which is an improvement of 14% over last week’s installment and 17% above the series debut, which brought in 800,000 viewers with its initial telecast, according to HBO. The “Watchmen” Season 1 closer also reached record highs for its preliminary digital premiere marking 8% above last week and 31% above the show’s debut night.
Per HBO, “Watchmen” is averaged more than 7 million viewers per episode this season, making it HBO’s most-watched first season of an original series since “Big Little Lies” Season 1 in 2017 and also the most-watched 4th quarter original series on HBO since “Westworld.”
Based on Moore and Gibbons’ acclaimed comic book series set in the ’80s, the show exists “in an alternate history where masked vigilantes are treated as outlaws.” According to HBO, “‘Watchmen’ embraces the nostalgia of the original groundbreaking graphic novel of the same name, while attempting to break new ground of its own.”
“Watchmen” stars King, Jeremy Irons, Jean Smart, Don Johnson, Tim Blake Nelson, Louis Gossett Jr., Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Adelaide Clemens, Andrew Howard, Tom Mison, Frances Fisher, Jacob Ming-Trent, Sara Vickers, Dylan Schombing, Lily Rose Smith and Adelynn Spoon.
The series is produced for HBO by White Rabbit in association with Warner Bros. Television, based on characters from DC.
“Watchmen” has not been renewed for a second season and Lindelof has some serious thoughts on whether or not he’d like to continue, telling Rolling Stone in an interview published after the finale that “right now, I don’t have any more ideas.”
“Whether you call something a limited series or an ongoing series, that’s fodder for awards consideration,” he said. “I’m not comfortable calling this anything other than nine complete episodes with a beginning, a middle, and an end. There is no promise of a continuation. Although others may disagree.”