'True Blood' Ratings Dip In Week 2

[Brian Damage]

On the heels of True Blood's renewal yesterday for Season 4, HBO released ratings for the Sunday second episode of the vampire drama's current third season. True Blood drew 4.3 million viewers, down modest 14% from the heavily promoted and highly-rated season premiere the week before. The combined audience for the 9PM and 11PM showings of the episode was 5.6 million viewers. Meanwhile, freshman drama Treme quietly wrapped its first season on Sunday (it has already been picked up for a second season). The New Orleans-based series held only to a fraction of the True Blood audience at 10PM, averaging 931,000 viewers (1.4 million when the midnight rerun is added.) But again, with Treme, which was renewed right after the premiere, ratings were never a factor in the pickup decision. "This is too good of a show and too important of a show not to invest in a second season," HBO's president of programming Michael Lombardo said at the time.

http://www.deadline.com/2010/06/rati...-1/#more-48550