Yesterday was a good day to be on the Mr. Robot team, mostly. The day after its well-liked second season premiere, USA Network’s break-out prestige drama garnered a total of six Emmy nominations for its widely acclaimed first season, including Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series for Rami Malek. But the celebrations may have been cut short by reports that the ratings for Mr. Robot‘s season two premiere were lower than anticipated.
Even after a buzzed-about viral marketing campaign for the premiere, the viewership was the lowest in the series’ short history. As reported by Deadline:
The Sam Esmail created series had 1.04 million total viewers and a 0.4 rating among adults 18-49 for its 91-minute Season 2 double episode premiere last night. That’s an all time viewership low for the series and matches the ratings lows of last season. Last night’s S2 debut was down 14% from the audience that watched the Season 1 finale of September 2 last year and 10% from the previous viewer low of August 5, 2015.
An even more startling number is that Mr. Robot‘s season two premiere is a whopping 41% drop in viewership from the series’ pilot. Its new aftershow, Hacking Robot, fared even worse, dropping off to just 376,000 viewers.
The silver lining here is these numbers represent same-day viewers, and Mr. Robot‘s viewership tends more towards catching up on DVR than watching it live. Here’s to hoping the critical acclaim finds its way to viewers’ record buttons so the revolution can remain televised.
