Emmy- and Oscar-winning writer Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing, The Social Network) enjoyed seemingly ceaseless buzz leading up to the launch Sunday night of his new HBO drama The Newsroom. But all the attention failed to sway critics, who branded the behind-the-scenes look at a cable news program Sorkin's worst TV show yet. Now, the ratings are in for the premiere, and their meaning is igniting as much debate as the show itself. The premiere attracted 2.1 million viewers, shedding half of the audience that tuned in for the episode of True Blood that aired before it. Does that mean that The Newsroom flopped?
The numbers are not that disappointing: From the "glass-half-empty" perspective, says Josef Adalian at New York, these numbers are way lower that the Boardwalk Empire premiere in 2010 (4.8 million viewers), and don't signal that Newsroom has become "Required Viewing" for HBO subscribers. But on the more optimistic side, the premiere was on par with Game of Thrones' debut (2.2 million in 2010), much higher than True Blood's first episode (1.4 million in 2008), and twice as good as the premieres of Luck and Treme (1.1 million each). "It wouldn't be fair to call it a flop."
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