According to an HBO press release, Sunday night saw HBO’s second season of The White Lotus surpass its predecessor with a 1.5M-viewed premiere across all platforms. In comparison, that is a 63% total increase in viewership across all platforms to the first season’s premiere episode. Nielsen and first-party data conclude last year’s season set in Hawaii opened to 944K viewers across HBO and HBO Max.

The first season averaged around 9.3M viewers per episode after its premiere in July of 2021. This week’s season premiere surpassed this average by 35%, despite the uptick of viewers watching the first season the last few weeks in anticipation of the new installment.

The anthology series set at a luxury resort has shifted to the romantic hills of Sicily for the second season. Created by Mike White, the show examines societal issues through the eyes and actions of the rich and intolerable. The first season explored class, privilege, and race at the White Lotus resort set on an island in the Pacific. Here, the second season explores sexual politics among guests and natives, pitting couples and complete strangers at odds. Similar to last season, the first episode reveals a murder has occurred; both the killer and victim will be revealed at the end of the season.

Season two stars include Aubrey Plaza (Legion, Emily the Criminal), Theo James (The Time Traveler’s Wife, Divergent), F. Murray Abraham (Moon Knight, Cabinet of Curiosities), Michael Imperioli (The Sopranos, This Fool), Adam DiMarco (The Magicians, The Order), Meghann Fahy (The Bold Type, Those People), Will Sharpe (Black Pond, Giri/Haji), Jon Gries (Napolean Dynamite, Taken 2), Haley Lu Richardson (Five Feet Apart, Split), and the series sole repeat actor, Jennifer Coolidge (Shotgun Wedding, Legally Blonde). 

The White Lotus is an Emmy-winning series with 20 nominations and a total of 10 wins under its belt, including Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series. With White being the head writer behind the series, he briefly spoke about a possible third season.

“We just turned in our last episode to the network yesterday, so it’s hard to think about the next race,” White said via Deadline. “But if we did, I think it’d be fun to maybe go to a whole different continent. You know, we did Europe, and maybe Asia, something crazy like that, that would be fun.”

New episodes of The White Lotus air Sunday evenings at 9 p.m. on HBO and HBO Max.