‘The Sopranos’ Draws Record Audience
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Bada-bing! The much-anticipated return episode of mob drama “The Sopranos” to HBO was the most watched program in the history of the cable channel, beating its broadcast network rivals, HBO said on Tuesday.
The premiere of the series’ fourth season averaged a record 13.4 million viewers from 9 to 10 p.m. Sunday, surpassing the No. 1 show for that hour on broadcast television, NBC’s “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” and the most watched program of the night on the Big Four, CBS news magazine “60 Minutes.”
Although both “Law & Order” and “60 Minutes” were repeats, the robust performance of “The Sopranos” was impressive given that the premium cable channel reaches only about a third of the estimated 107 million American homes with TV sets.
A spokeswoman for HBO, controlled by AOL Time Warner Inc. , said the premiere was believed to be the first time that an HBO program topped the viewership for each of the Big Four broadcasters in a single hour.
The previous record-holder for most-watched broadcast on HBO was the 1989 championship boxing match between Mike Tyson and Frank Bruno, the spokeswoman said.
Still, “The Sopranos” is not expected to do quite as well next Sunday night, when it will air opposite the Primetime Emmy Awards show on NBC, or the following week amid the rollout of the major networks’ new fall lineup.
In its third season, “The Sopranos” averaged 13.6 million viewers per episode, but that figure is a cumulative average of the show’s four or five individual airings on HBO each week.
Returning to HBO after a 16-month hiatus, “The Sopranos” picked up where it left off as Tony Soprano ( James Gandolfini) continued efforts to reconcile his roles as a gangster and family man through therapy while coping with a strained marriage and money problems in the family business.
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