HBO’s ‘The Idol’ Premieres to 913,000 Viewers, Down 17% From ‘Euphoria’ Series Launch

HBO said Hello, angel to 913,000 viewers when it aired the series premiere of The Idol on Sunday night.

Provided by Warner Bros. Discovery, that number points to Nielsens measurement of linear viewers on HBOs cable channel combined with WBDs own data regarding streams on Max.

For context, Euphoria (created by Sam Levinson, who is co-creator of The Idol) drew 1.1 million viewers when it premiered in 2019. (Max had not yet launched, meaning viewers were counted across HBO, HBO Go and HBO Now.) Levinsons second HBO outing is therefore 17% behind his first. The trajectory of Euphoria Season 1 viewership was mostly flat, peaking with 1.2 million viewers of the finale, meaning that The Idol could still manage to beat out Euphorias early performance if its audience continue to grow. But theres only one month left to achieve that, as the dramas first season will run for a short five episodes.

Its additionally notable that Euphoria had the benefit of premiering directly after an episode of HBOs Big Little Lies that got 2.3 million viewers, while The Idol was released in competition with Game 2 of the 2023 NBA Finals.

The Idols viewership is relatively even with other recent HBO projects not based on major IP: The White Lotus saw 944,000 premiere viewers in 2021, while Winning Time got 901,000 in 2022.

From Levinson alongside Abel The Weeknd Tesfaye and Reza Fahim, The Idol follows Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp), who is working to reclaim her pop star status after a nervous breakdown when she gets wrapped up into a connection with Tedros (Tesfaye), a nightclub impresario with a dark past.

The first two episodes of The Idol were screened at the Cannes Film Festival, where Levinson said that reports of a toxic set made him realize The Idol would be the biggest show of the summer.

The Idol was produced in partnership with A24. Executive producers include Levinson, Tesfaye, Rahim, Kevin Turen, Ashley Levinson, Joe Epstein, Sarah E. White and Brons Aaron L. Gilbert. Alongside Depp and Tesfaye, the cast includes Troye Sivan, Dan Levy, DaVine Joy Randolph, Eli Roth, Hari Nef, Jane Adams, Jennie Ruby Jane, Mike Dean, Moses Sumney, Rachel Sennott, Ramsey, Suzanna Son and Hank Azaria. All five episodes are directed by Levinson.