HBO’s "Looking" Debuts Soft, "True Detective" & "Girls" Down
by DOMINIC PATTEN
Wednesday January 22, 2014


There just weren’t a lot of people watching the debut of "Looking" on Sunday. The 10:30 PM premiere of the half-hour dramedy following the life, loves and friendship of a trio of gay men living in San Francisco drew just 338,000 viewers.

While the show picked up another 268,000 viewers in its second play, that initial broadcast was a free fall from the 779,000 viewers that its lead-in "Girls" had. It also is down from the 881,000 viewers the second episode of "Girls’" third season had in the 10:30 slot the week before.



To give the "Looking" debut some greater context, the "Girls" series premiere on April 15, 2012, pulled in 872,000 viewers — and like "Looking" that was an ensemble with no big stars. Of course, this past Sunday’s "Girls" was down at 10 PM from the series high of 1.1 million it hit on January 12.

Part of that no doubt was the decline of its lead-in "True Detective" which averaged 1.7 million viewers at 9 PM. That’s down from the 2.3 million debut.

http://www.deadline.com/2014/01/hbo-looking-true-detective-girls-tv-ratings/

The premiere episode was dull, I must admit. There was one episode in the whole season that was good, and the rest I thought were mediocre to blah. I'm sort of surprised there aren't more people raising a fuss about this show, because it teeters on porn in my opinion. But I don't think enough people are watching to cause a stir. Frankly, I am surprised HBO gave it a second season....but then again, I am not.