The cable finals are out for Sunday night, so of course a lot of you want to know how Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom held up minus the constant round of internet press in homage to the show’s creator. Unfortunately for fans of the series who really wanted the program to do well, there is definitely no ratings bump. Instead, the Jeff Daniels-lead drama shed almost half a million viewers as the total came in at around 1.68 million.
While demo numbers do not matter one bit to subscription-based networks, the show scored a 0.7 in the 18-49 demographic which does not exactly mean only old people are watching like what some might assume. It does however cement The Newsroom’s status as the channel’s least popular non-cancelled offering in the genre which does not exactly matter. The reason being is that the series already received a second season pickup yesterday as the decision-makers at HBO are more than okay with this drop-off.
As I suggested yesterday when the news proliferated, a renewal was inevitable as the network tends to give every series in their arsenal two years to find an audience. Expect to see the Sorkin-scripted program next year, but if legs are not established by then, we might not see a third season. Until that time, keep an eye on the show’s retention as a leaky ship certainly will not get the job done.