Well, if you take a great episode like last’s week’s episode 2, and show it right after the first episode on HBO GO and let everyone see it all during the week on their cable companies, ON DEMAND channel, then what do you expect to happen to the ratings on it’s “official” air date?
Everyone had already seen the episode well before it officially aired on July 3, 2011, and it seems that some are worried, but not us, we know that episode 3 will be right back up on top!
Before Sunday’s episode of “True Blood” aired, the premium network made a pair of risky decisions:
Deciding to air an episode the night before the 4th of July — when many people celebrating the holiday may be choosing to do so on the Sunday.
Giving mobile HBO GO customers the option to have the episode a week early — which led to it leaking online.
Thanks to these two decisions, the ratings for the episode “You Smell Like Dinner” sank faster than a block of vampire-killing silver in the ocean. Overall, the show only brought in 2.9 million viewers and a 1.46 rating in the 18-49 demographic. While these demo numbers still made the show #1 on all TV for the night, this marks a drop of nearly 50% from the premiere episode that aired the week before.
While other shows may see this as a sign to panic, though, “True Blood” fans need not worry. Since they don’t have to worry so much about advertisers, they can handle people recording the show or watching it early — just as long as they are paying to subscribe.
We applaud True Blood for trying new ways to entice the fans to watch and think that these new ways also require new ways of calculating!
source: examiner.com
