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Viewership for the back-to-back final episodes of “The Righteous Gemstones” Season 3 was up 9% from the two episodes dropped during its June premiere, TheWrap can reveal exclusively.
As the HBO comedy wrapped up its third installment Sunday evening, the final two episodes averaged 590,000 viewers across streaming platform Max and linear telecasts, according to Nielsen live-plus-same-day viewership.
With the added boost from the finale episodes, “The Righteous Gemstones” Season 3 is on track to become the series’ most watched season yet. The first five episodes of the nine-episode season have averaged over 5 million viewers, currently outpacing the average viewership for Season 2 episodes after the same amount of time by over 10%. While Season 2 averaged 4.3 million viewers at this time, the second installment went on to average 5.1 million viewers across platforms.
“The Righteous Gemstones” has also cemented its place as Danny McBride’s most-watched HBO series, logging more viewers than “Eastbound and Down,” which averaged 4.2 million viewers during its run from 2009 and 2013; as well as “Vice Principals,” which brought in an average viewership of 4.8 million during its 2016-2017 run.
Given this season’s viewership growth, HBO renewed “The Righteous Gemstones” for a fourth season at the network ahead of its Season 3 finale.
Created and written by McBride, the comedy centers on a dysfunctional family of televangelists who run a megachurch in the Carolinas. John Goodman stars as patriarch Eli, while McBride, Edi Patterson and Adam DeVine star as the three Gemstone children.
The HBO series rounds out its cast with Walton Goggins, Cassidy Freeman, Tim Baltz, Tony Cavalero, Skyler Gisondo, Kelton DuMont and Gavin Munn. Across its three seasons, the series has hosted guest stars including Eric Andre, Jessica Lowe, Dermot Mulroney, Jason Schwartzman, Eric Roberts, Steve Zahn, Iliza Shlesinger, Casey Wilson, Macaulay Culkin and Joe Jonas.
“The Righteous Gemstones” is streaming on Max.
