‘Succession’ Season 4 Premiere Breaks Record

Succession might have a devoted fanbase, but the show hasn’t quite earned HBO the same ratings as House of the Dragon, The White Lotus, or The Last of Us. The Season 4 premiere showed the show is catching up though, setting a series record on Sunday night. Unfortunately for HBO, this is the show’s last season premiere.

The episode, hilariously titled “The Munsters” because that’s who Logan Roy thinks his party guests resemble, drew 2.3 million viewers across HBO Max and linear telecasts, HBO said Tuesday. That’s a 62% jump from the Season 3 premiere and a 33% increase from the Season 3 finale. Season 3 episodes went on to average 7.2 million viewers per episode across multiple platforms. HBO cited Nielsen and first-party data.

Succession also beat out the White Lotus Season 2 premiere by 51%, HBO said. The only recent Sunday night premieres to draw bigger numbers were Euphoria, The Last of Us, and House of the Dragon. In January, The Last of Us series premiere drew 4.7 million viewers, the second-biggest premiere since 2010 for HBO. House of the Dragon drew 9.99 million viewers for its first episode.

“The Munsters” found the Roy family still shattered into two camps after the events of the Season 3 finale. Roman (Kieran Culkin), Shiv (Sarah Snook), and Kendall (Jeremy Strong) are in Los Angeles now, trying to outmaneuver their father Logan’s (Brian Cox) attempt to swallow up another legacy media brand. Meanwhile, in New York, Logan celebrated his birthday with Conor (Alan Ruck) as his only child there. Shiv is now estranged from her husband Tom (Matthew Macfayden) after he betrayed her in the Season 3 finale. Greg (Nicholas Braun) also hoped to keep his alliance with fellow Disgusting Brother Tom alive.

Creator Jesse Armstrong decided Season 4 will be the last for Succession. He told Variety he was actually surprised that no one from his writing staff or HBO tried to talk him out of the decision. “The word that comes to mind for me is ‘natural.’ I hope people, when they see this season, will feel that it has a natural shape to it,” he said. “That’s how I pitched it to my writers’ room, kind of hoping I’d get argued out of it so we’d see a way to do more seasons because I love working with these people. I think there’s a feeling of completeness and rightness to the shape of the show.”

Succession has earned 48 Emmy nominations and 13 wins for its first three seasons. Seasons 2 and 3 won Outstanding Drama Series. Matthew Macfayden, Cherry Jones, and Jeremy Strong won Emmys for their performances on the show. Season 3 also won Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series at the 2022 Screen Actors Guild Awards. New episodes air Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and are streaming on HBO Max.