Nellie Andreeva

HBO’s True Blood held steady with its third episode Sunday, while the season premieres of Hung and Entourage were down from last year. True Blood averaged 4.5 million viewers at 9 PM, up from the 4.3 million who tuned in for episode 2 the week before. However, the total audience when the 11PM airing is factored in was 5.1 million, down 9% from the week before.

At 10PM, the second season premiere of Hung averaged 2.5 million viewers, down 11% from the show’s series debut last year. The show’s ratings were down despite the fact that the show had a stronger lead-in this year. Last year’s episode of True Blood, which opened for the Hung premiere, drew 3.7 million viewers. But for the night, Hung’s cume viewership, 3.5 million, was close to last year’s total, 3.7 million. At 10:30PM, the season opener of veteran Entourage logged 2.5 million viewers, down 26% from last year’s season debut. On the bright side, Entourage held onto 100% of its Hung lead-in in total viewers, while dropping 6% last year.

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