The Idol premiere does solid but not euphoric ratings
Months of hype and a much-discussed Cannes premiere didn’t result in huge ratings
The public’s desire to see Lily-Rose Depp and Able “The Weeknd” Tesfaye’s lurid drama about the exploitative pop-star factory may have been overstated. Despite reviews showering the internet with references to all the carnal horrors and on-set mayhem that helped The Idol bubble to the top of the discourse in Succession’s wake, viewers weren’t so eager for a peek. The show did solid numbers for Sam Levinson’s Euphoria follow-up, though not as much as his other show. Per Variety, The Idol pulled in 913,000 viewers on Sunday night, with numbers that combine Nielsen viewers and Warner Bros. Discovery’s data.
Not that 913,000 viewers are anything to scoff at. After all, only 2.9 million people watched the Succession finale, and that show had an online fanbase as robust and committed as any of HBO’s buzziest dramas. Moreover, as Variety notes, the premiere sits in between other shows not based on pre-existing “major” I.P., like The White Lotus (944,000 viewers) and Winning Time (901,000)—though it could be said that both hotels and Los Angeles Lakers are long-running I.P., but we don’t need to split hairs.
Yet, compared to Euphoria, pretty much all these shows’ ratings look dismal. Last year, Deadline reported that Euphoria’s season two finale brought in 6.6 million viewers, and that didn’t have the benefit of a near-constant discussion of biological fluids on Lily-Rose Depp’s face. Per our own review, The Idol’s lack of quality may have resulted in a lack of interest, resulting in a series that aims to provoke but mostly annoys. In their recap of the premiere, reviewer Manuel Betancourt wrote:
This pilot episode—all about how a viral image of Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp) with cum all over her face may affect the rollout of her upcoming single and tour—constantly winks and nudges at us that it knows just how thorny and vexing talk about shame and agency operate in this kind of world. And yet, it all adds up to a rather hollow spectacle not nearly as smart or as edgy or as insightful as the show knows itself to be.
New episodes of The Idol are released on Sundays on HBO and Max.