Killing Eve‘s Debut Season Soars Past Expectations, Adding Viewers with Each Episode

BBC America’s breakout drama Killing Eve is killing it.

The fan and critical favorite wrapped its debut season on Sunday, May 27, and on Friday, BBC America announced that the show has accomplished something no scripted series has since the Nielsen Live+3 ratings measurement era began more than a decade ago: Killing Eve’s viewership in TV’s two key demos (adults 18-49 and 25-54) grew with each consecutive episode, with Sunday’s finale delivering a season (and series) high of 1.25 million total viewers, doubling its premiere audience. (Though undoubtedly a huge success story for BBC America, this is not quite as major as the network makes it sound: With a vastly larger audience, FOX’s Empire grew its total viewership overall in each week of its first season, and all but one in the key demo.)

Killing Eve has found similar success on the network’s digital platforms, where it has also grown each week on its way to becoming BBCA’s most-watched digital series ever. The show’s premiere has become the most-watched digital episode in network history, as well.

Needless to say, the series has already been renewed for a second season. In fact, BBCA ordered a second helping of Eve and Villanelle before the show had even premiered. We at Paste are all the way onboard with Killing Eve’s runaway success—the series has held a top spot on our weekly TV power rankings since its premiere, while Paste TV’s Amy Amatangelo wrote in the opening lines of her season one review, “Yes. More of this, please. Thank you.”

Alongside the announcement of the show’s record-breaking rookie season, BBCA president Sarah Barnett thanked the show’s stars, showrunner and fans in a statement:

From the very start, we felt we had something smart, exciting and different with Killing Eve, and hoped viewers would see what we saw. Thanks to Phoebe, Sandra, Jodie and everyone else who brought this series to life. Shows like Killing Eve not only engage and entertain, they create vibrant and passionate fandoms, and that has certainly been the case here. Thanks to the truly remarkable Killing Eve fans, both for spreading the word about the series and for how vocal and creative they’ve been in expressing their love for this show.

Showrunner, head writer and executive producer Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag) echoed Barnett’s sentiment:

I’m ecstatic to hear Eve and Villanelle have been keeping people up at night. Thank you to everyone who watched our show and passed it on to others. It’s everything we could have hoped for. Every department put their all into making this show, and we’re all buzzing with excitement about the love it’s getting.

Series star and associate producer Sandra Oh said:

It’s so fantastic that in this TV age of binge watching and being inundated with so much content that Killing Eve fans have grown the audience the tried and true way of word of mouth and are watching it weekly. Watching how it’s grown so organically, the old school way, is extremely satisfying. I thank our fun and twisted audience.

“I’m thrilled that the audience is as obsessed as I am with Villanelle and Killing Eve,” added Oh’s costar Jodie Comer. “It’s been incredible to see how fans have embraced this show, from their tweets to their unbelievable fan art.”

For the unfamiliar, BBCA’s synopsis of the series is as follows:

Killing Eve centers on two women; Eve (Oh) is a bored, whip-smart, pay-grade MI5 security officer whose desk-bound job doesn’t fulfill her fantasies of being a spy. Villanelle (Comer) is a mercurial, talented killer who clings to the luxuries her violent job affords her. Penned by Phoebe Waller-Bridge and based on the novellas by Luke Jennings, Killing Eve follows these two women, equally obsessed with each other, as they go head to head in an epic game of cat and mouse.

You can catch all eight Killing Eve episodes via BBCAmerica.com and the BBCA app, and for the many fans who can’t get enough of this show, might we recommend revisiting our April interview with Oh, our May essay on Comer’s character and our review of Killing Eve’s first season?