Twin Peaks Breaks Showtime Subscription Records, Yet Notches Mediocre Ratings

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How big was the Twin Peaks premiere on Showtime? It’s still dominating discussions online over scenes from Sunday’s two-part premiere, and during the debut the show garnered 4.7 million total impressions on Twitter to become the top trend domestically and internationally.

The return saw subscription records broken for all of the network’s streaming services: Showtime Anytime, Showtime On Demand and Showtime on Hulu. That may be due in part to the network releasing episodes three and four immediately after Sunday’s premiere only to those who signed up for streaming services.

However, only 506,000 viewers tuned in to Showtime’s actual 9 p.m. premiere Sunday night, which earned a 0.2 Nielsen rating among adults 18-49. Showtime fell short of their competitors, with HBO’s The Leftovers raking in 770,000 viewers and American Gods on Starz drawing in 631,000.

While still disappointing for a debut 26 years in the making, live views mean less and less these days. “In the world that we live in now, offering original programming that attracts new subscribers is our primary business objective,” Showtime Networks CEO David Nevins said. “By that standard, the Twin Peaks premiere is the biggest single-night driver we’ve ever had.”

Live +3 ratings for the debut will come later this week. Episodes three and four of Twin Peaks will air May 28 before the network shifts to just one episode a week for the rest of the season.

Read our review of the two-hour premiere here, and keep up with the rest of our Twin Peaks coverage right here.