Cablemetrics: Westworld, Shameless, Fear the Walking Dead, American Horror Story

These numbers are current through Monday, October 3.

WHAT MATTERS:

• HBO's much-hyped sci-fi drama Westworld opened to a 0.77 demo rating and just under 2 million total viewers on Sunday night. It didn't skew that young (with half its viewership falling in the 18-49 demo) but it was definitely super-male, with a 0.96 in males 18-49 vs. 0.58 in females 18-49. I've already seen a lot of comparisons to the modest beginnings of Game of Thrones' run back in spring 2011 (just 2.222 million viewers and a 0.9). Clearly, this is a much better start than that when looking at the 2016 environment, but it's also clear that very, very few shows take the kind of trajectory that Thrones has since then. With this start, it's not hard to envision Westworld as either an elite cable drama or a disappointment. (Or both?)

• Westworld had to compete with the season finale of Fear the Walking Dead, which averaged a 1.59 in the 9:00 hour and dipped to 1.26 at 10:00. The show was mostly steady in the mid-1's through this late summer/early fall run, with only a couple dips over Labor Day weekend and this 10/9c ep. AMC will now take a two-week break from drama programming before roaring back with The Walking Dead mothership on October 23 (though there is a big TWD recap special on the 16th).

• Also in the busy Sunday 9/8c hour, Showtime brought back Shameless (0.49) for its first ever fall run (while Homeland will air in the winter for the first time). It was a fairly typical 22% behind last year's premiere.

• Elsewhere, FX has seen its fall lineup deal with the return of broadcast competition. We talked last time about how American Horror Story got whacked against broadcast's Premiere Wednesday, but AHS' third episode was far more promising: down just a tenth more to 1.69, and actually a hair above the year-ago third episode in raw numbers. The comedies Atlanta (0.56 -> 0.48 -> 0.41) and Better Things (0.21 -> 0.16 -> 0.15) have also gotten stung against the heavier competition, with Better Things now looking more like another low-rated critical success in the Louie tradition. Atlanta is still doing pretty well ratings-wise, especially compared with the year-ago occupant The Bastard Executioner.

FULL TABLE:

Name	Net	Ep	A18-49	Last	Seas	Avg	y2y	Proj	ProjPlus	Skew	Male
American Horror Story	FX	3	1.69	-6%	6	2.09	-8%	1.37	113	69%	41%
Fear the Walking Dead	AMC	15	1.42	-10%	2	1.83	-53%	1.83	151	55%	52%
South Park	COME	3	1.09	+12%	10	1.13	+26%	1.11	91	78%	76%
Westworld	HBO	1	0.77		1	0.77		0.57	47	50%	62%
Talking Dead: Fear	AMC	14	0.52	+13%	1	0.60		0.59	48	53%	50%
Queen Sugar	OWN	5	0.45	+2%	1	0.55		0.47	39	35%	28%
Atlanta	FX	5	0.41	-15%	1	0.49		0.44	36	64%	54%
Shameless	SHOW	1	0.49		6	0.49	-22%	0.50	41	50%	48%
The Strain	FX	6	0.35	-13%	3	0.44	-33%	0.40	33	55%	54%
Z Nation	SYFY	3	0.25	-19%	3	0.29	-19%	0.27	22	37%	51%
Better Things	FX	4	0.15	-6%	1	0.21		0.17	14	51%	42%
For Better or Worse	OWN	2	0.17	+3%	4	0.17	-38%	0.15	13	32%
Halt and Catch Fire	AMC	7	0.10	0%	3	0.12	-26%	0.12	10	47%
You're the Worst	FXX	5	0.09	+12%	3	0.12	-17%	0.11	9	56%
Masters of Sex	SHOW	4	0.15	+67%	4	0.11	-15%	0.11	9	31%

The Cablemetrics table can be sorted by clicking any of the categories at the top (and a second click will sort in the other direction.) After having sorted by a category, you can hold SHIFT and click another category to sort by the second category within the first.