HBO cracked the superb ratings code with True Detective, the immensely popular anthology whose season finale on Sunday night blew out the ratings and the HBO Go website in under an hour.
As the True Detective finale got underway last night, scores of viewers on pins and needles flooded the HBO Go website from their computers, iPads, phones and a variety of non-TV devices to live stream the final episode and learn the identity of the Yellow King. So many people tried to watch the True Detective finale live streaming at HBO Go that the website crashed for a period of time.
Setting aside a large number of HBO subscribers that chose to online stream the finale, a total of 3.5 million viewers settled onto their couch to watch it on the HBO channel per Nielsen. That’s the highest rated episode of the eight-episode run, easily besting the 2.3 million viewers who tuned in for the premiere.
A total of 11 million unique viewers watched True Detective over the course of its first season. That’s the most viewers to tune into a debut season of an HBO series since the Six Feet Under freshman season way back in 2001.
With as big a hit as True Detective has become, it’s no surprise that HBO is pushing creator Nic Pizzolatto to get busy on a second season. Pizzolatto and HBO have already confirmed that Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson will not return, and that the next anthology will be all new characters and a new story, ala American Horror Story.
Information is scarce about where the second season might head, but Pizzolatto did share the following with HitFix in an interview. “This is really early, but I’ll tell you it’s about hard women, bad men and the secret occult history of the United States transportation system.”
In case you missed True Detective last night, HBO Go is fully functional today and the season finale is waiting for you.
