According to Deadline, HBO’s Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty second season premiered on August 6 and received 629,000 views on HBO’s linear network and Max. This is a decrease from the season one debut on March 6, 2022 that received 901,000. Season one ended up with 1.6 million same-day viewers for the finale in May of that year.
The first season of Winning Time averaged about 1.2 million viewers per episode on the nights they aired. This grew to 6 million viewers per episode. HBO shows typically grow due to delayed viewing. For example, The White Lotus debuted to 944,00 viewers on July 11, 2021 and grew to average 9.3 million viewers by the end of the season.
Winning Time is a dramatic look at the rise of the NBA’s Lakers, Magic Johnson and Dr. Jerry Buss in Los Angeles in the 1980s. The second season focuses on the time after the 1980 NBA Finals through 1984. This covers the first professional rematch of the greatest stars from the era, including Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird of the Boston Celtics.
The series is co-created and written by Jim Hecht (Robots, Ice Age: The Meltdown) and Max Borenstein (Minority Report, Kong: Skull Island). The two executive produce along with Rodney Barnes (Everybody Hates Chris, Bliss), Adam McKay (The Big Short, Vice), Jason Shuman (Acapulco, Bangkok Dangerous), Scott Stephens (True Detective, Westworld), Kevin Messick (Vice, Don’t Look Up), and director Salli Richardson-Whitfield (Gargoyles, Eureka).
It stars Sean Patrick Small (Utensils, The Just), Quincy Isaiah (Corporate Coffee, Grasslands), Michael Chiklis (Coyote, The Shield), Jason Segel (How I Met Your Mother, Shrinking), Adrien Brody (The Pianist, The Village), John C. Reilly (Step Brothers, Sing), Rob Morgan (Mudbound, Don’t Look Up), Gaby Hoffmann (Uncle Buck, Now and Then), Solomon Hughes (Winning Time: The Forum, Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty), Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Get Down, Salinger), Gillian Jacobs (Love, Community), Tamera Tomakili (Blindspotting, Run the World), Spencer Garrett (Aquarius, Family Matters), Joey Brooks (Succession, Molly’s Game), McCabe Slye (Fear Street Part One: 1994, Destroyer), Hadley Robinson (Moxie, Little Women), Delante Desouza (Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty), Thomas Mann (Project X, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On), DeVaughn Nixon (Prom, Sugar Hill), Jimel Atkins (David Makes Man, Bernie the Dolphin), Jason Clarke (The Great Gatsby, Oppenheimer), Brett Cullen (The Young Riders, Legacy), Molly Gordon (The Bear, Animal Kingdom), and Austin Aaron (13 Reasons Why, Mayans M.C.).