Season two of HBO’s “The Newsroom” returned to HBO Sunday night. The show that TV news staffers love to hate is back with an overarching plot surrounding a lawsuit, and Occupy Wall Street as the news item du jour. Dan Rather is once again reviewing the episodes for Gawker.
The season premiere drew 2.2 million viewers, with an additional 400,000 watching the replay later in the evening.
For comparison, the series debuted last June to 2.1 million viewers, with the season finale drawing 2.3 million viewers. In other words, “The Newsroom” looks to be picking up right where it left off.
Of course, HBO notes that last season a cumulative total of 7.1 million people watched each episode (HBO sees a lot of replays and on-demand viewing), so the numbers are slightly better than your typical cable drama.
“The Newsroom” relied on a number of high-profile consultants for season two, including MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, CNN’s Ashleigh Banfield and S.E. Cupp.