It’s a stretch to say “The Undoing is bigger than Game of Thrones,” but the premiere episode did outdo our introduction to Westeros in one encouraging way.
The Undoing, HBO’s new psychological mystery thriller starring Hugh Grant and Nicole Kidman, is more popular than Game of Thrones…kind of. There are a lot of caveats to get through before you can say that with a straight face.
A more accurate way to say this is that people with access to Sky, Comcast’s European pay-TV giant, watched the first episode of The Undoing in greater numbers than they watched the Game of Thrones series premiere, “Winter Is Coming,” back in 2011. To get specific, The Undoing premiere pulled in more than 2.78 million viewers over a 28-day period, with the three episodes averaging out to 2.5 million viewers, which ain’t too shabby. In fact, Sky says that the limited series is on track to begin the biggest US series its ever launched on its Sky Atlantic channel, already blowing past big shows like Watchmen, True Detective and Big Little Lies.
Of course, the audience for Game of Thrones grew over time until it become a record-setting ratings phenomenon, whereas The Undoing will probably end things with just the one season, although it’s not out of the question to bring it back for another go if there’s interest, will and money; it happened with Big Little Lies, after all.
Whatever happens, kudos on The Undoing’s success. (The show did better in Europe than it did in the U.S., FYI). After Game of Thrones ended, there were concerns that the network wouldn’t be able to sustain itself without its biggest cash cow, and while it hasn’t found anything quite on that level — it’d be hard for anyone, too — it has a string of buzzworthy hits that proved it still knows how to pick ’em.
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