Boardwalk Empire had the unforgiving honor of going up against NBC's Sunday Night Football opener, Breaking Bad and a slew of other competition during the premiere of its fourth season last night.
And while the HBO drama was down half a million viewers from its third season premiere last fall for a total of 2.4 million viewers, it did best last season's average 2.3 million viewers.
The first episode back for Boardwalk Empire earned an additional 800,000 viewers with a 11 p.m. replay, giving it a nightly total of 3.2 million viewers. That might not be the kind of numbers netted by fellow HBO dramas True Blood and Game of Thrones, but it places it ahead of Newsroom. The Aaron Sorkin drama's most-watched episode to-date earned 2.3 million viewers.
Like all HBO series, Boardwalk Empire sees its greatest viewership in gross numbers. Roughly 8 million viewers tuned in last season between original broadcasts, encores, DVR and HBO GO streams.
