Ratings Review: PENNY DREDFUL (Season One)

PENNY DREADFUL was a much buzzed about series, coming from Showtime, before it's premiere. The hype, although not over the top, seemed a bit much for a network that struggles to grab one million viewers an episode, for any of it's regular series. I was correct. The series had more hype than viewers.

PENNY DREADFUL did perform better than other veteran Showtime series, like CALIFORNICATION and NURSE JACKIE, but it is far from being a series that many people actually watch. Do people even care about originals on Showtime? Is the channel producing series for the wrong crowd, which subscribes to the premium channel? Would PENNY DREADFUL do better, if it aired at the exact same time, but on HBO?

For the 8 episode season, PENNY DREADFUL averaged 730,000 viewers and a 0.3 rating in Adults 18-49. A second season, for 2015, has been ordered by Showtime. The new season will consist of 10 episodes, up two from this first season.

PENNY DREADFUL (Sundays at 10 p.m., on Showtime)

Date	Viewers*	A18-49	L+3	L+7
05/11/14	0.87	0.4
05/18/14	0.40	0.1
05/25/14	0.73	0.3
06/01/14	0.73	0.3
06/08/14	0.80	0.3
06/15/14	0.68	0.3
06/22/14	0.80	0.4
06/29/14	0.86	0.4

* - in millions