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HBO Max’s ‘Succession’ Begins Fourth Season with Record Viewership, Massive Hype, and Excited Fans

March 28th, 2023 - 2:04 AM

HBO Max’s ‘Succession’ Begins Fourth Season with Record Viewership, Massive Hype, and Excited Fans

There are not that many shows that captivate audiences across a vast stretch of time. Succession’s fourth and final season has proved it has what it takes to leave fans wanting so much more. After the release of its first episode on Sunday, March 26th, 2023, many have speculated on what twists and turns would come out of it.

To start, the Emmy award winning HBO Original drama was created by Jesse Armstrong (Peep Show, Fresh Meat) who also serves as the series’ showrunner. He is also an executive producer alongside Adam McKay (Don’t Look Up, Dead to Me), Frank Rich (Veep, Six by Sondheim), Kevin Messick (Don’t Look Up, Motherland: Fort Salem), Jane Tranter (The Night Of, His Dark Materials), Mark Mylod (Game of Thrones, Shameless), Tony Roche (Veep, The Thick of It), Scott Ferguson (The Night Of, Brokeback Mountain), Jon Brown (Misfits, Avenue 5), Lucy Prebble (I Hate Suzie, Secret Diary of a Call Girl), Will Tracy (Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, The Menu), and Will Ferrell (Anchorman 2, Talladega Nights).

The story revolves around a family running a major company pursuing money and power. The narrative focuses on the CEO of Waystar Royco, Logan Roy starring Brian Cox (Adaptation, X2: X-Men United), and his four grown children, Kendall played by Jeremy Strong (The Big Short, The Trial of the Chicago 7), Siobhan played by Sarah Snook (Steve Jobs, Predestination), Roman played by Kieran Culkin (Home Alone, Fargo), and Connor played by Alan Ruck (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Twister).

The first three seasons of Succession have garnered 48 Emmy nominations and 13 wins, which include Outstanding Drama Series, seasons two and three. The latter earned the SAG Award for drama ensemble and swept the competition at WGA, DGA, and PGA.

The hype train is only getting started. Many outlets have covered all sides of this fandom and the hype surrounding it. On Friday, Culkin was a guest on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon where he promoted the series’ fourth season. According to The Hollywood Reporter, they observed how Fallon would note Culkin’s preference for sitting in chairs. Culkin plays the character Roman Roy, the immature, cocky, and sarcastic youngest son of Logan Roy.

Culkin joked with Fallon on the idea and mentioned how he didn’t even consciously think about it until it was brought up. The article goes on to highlight Culkin’s feelings of the show’s end; “As far as whether he’ll miss playing Roman now that the series is set to conclude with the fourth season that debuts Sunday, Culkin admitted he hadn’t, well, sat with the idea for long enough. ‘It hasn’t hit me ’cause we only finished like three weeks ago, shooting,’ he said. ‘I just have not processed it.’” via. The Hollywood Reporter.

Since Sunday’s release of episode 1, the debut accumulated 2.3 million viewers across HBO Max and linear telecasts, which marks this a new series high. According to HBO & Deadline, the total viewership for the show was up 62% compared to last season’s premiere at 1.4M and 33% compared to last season’s finale at 1.7M. Succession season 3 averaged 7.2 million viewers per episode across all platforms.  They cite the viewership figures on Nielsen and first party data.

Comparing this show to other Sunday premieres on HBO, total viewership was 51% ahead of The White Lotus season two premiere and trailed only behind House of the Dragon, The Last of Us, and Euphoria among HBO’s most popular series right now. Viewership for the show’s previous seasons has been accelerating in anticipation of season four. it is said by HBO that last week’s viewership count for the first three seasons were up more than 4x versus the previous week.

Another metric to observe are the reviews and talk online. As of now, season four episode one titled “The Munsters” has a 100% certified fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer. On IMDb, it has a rating of 9.0/10. Just this alone is impressive, but the online chatter is even more interesting. Vulture had stated that the series is, “a shining example of the best qualities of TV,” Variety chimes in saying the show “tops itself again,” and IndieWire hails it “the end all, be all of TV.” People have been taking to Twitter to share their thoughts, excitement, and predictions regarding the series’ latest episode.

Many more avenues can also be explored as well, including the mansions that were used in the show. According to the Robb Report, “Twitter user @kristytipsy identified the location shown as Nan Pierce’s home on the show as the Peabody Estate in Santa Barbara, also known as Villa Solana. The estate, built in 1914 by architect Francis T. Underhill and exec Frederick Forrest Peabody, was formerly home to the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions think tank, visited by leaders like John F. Kennedy and Henry Kissinger during its years of operation from 1958 to 1978…In 2020, the property was sold to former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, per the Wall Street Journal, for the price of $30.8 million—well below the $57.5 million it was listed for in 2012.”

Here is some more trivia. After new episodes are released, viewers are able to tune in to the official Succession podcast. Hosted by Kara Swisher (Silicon Valley, After Truth: Disinformation and the Cost of Fake News), this features conversations with the show’s cast and crew. The multi-part podcast also goes into detail into the show’s impeccable writing, dynamic performances and high-powered family drama that make the show so special. The podcast is right now ranked at #1 on Apple’s TV & Film chart in the U.S.

It’s no surprise that the actors themselves tease what might occur in the following episodes. This treads the line of spoiler territory, so proceed with caution. In an interview with Variety, Cox goes into detail about his character and what he has to do to make amends; “He’s getting old. He’s tired — he’s very tired! He doesn’t want to be doing the same old, same old again and again and again. He wants some kind of completion to what he does, and who he is.”

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Strong describes how he has fit the mold of his character with his method acting; “Maybe 15 minutes after we finished, I had Kieran and Sarah buzz my hair off. That was one step. I think a bunch of other people jumped in with the clippers, too. Anybody who wants to help. (Laughs.)”

On March 20, Armstrong even chimed in during the red-carpet premiere of Succession at New York’s Jazz at Lincoln Center. When asked about the outcome for the show, he says, “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 …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.” via. Variety.

From that same article, It mentions how during the last days of shooting, the cast and crew were very emotional. J. Smith Cameron (You Can Count on Me, Rectify) reflects how, “It was terrible. It was a lot of people bawling our eyes out. I might start crying tonight…It’s very, very hard to say goodbye to Succession.”

The final season will air episodes every Sunday on HBO Max at 9:00pm ET/PT. In the meantime, you can watch the trailer for season four below. After that, catch yourselves up because as fans might say, “you don’t want to miss this.”

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