HBO's new Sunday night series may be a little tough to explain, but viewers turned out Sept. 14 to decipher them for themselves. HBO's new drama Carnivale, using Emmy-winning comedy Sex and the City as its lead-in, started strong. The political reality-scripted hybrid K Street lost much of that audience, though.
Sex and the City's summer finale nabbed record marks, a 15.8 rating with 7.7 million viewers, making it the series' highest-rated episode ever. Sex, in its final season on HBO, now goes on hiatus until January 2004, when it will conclude its six-season run.
HBO ratings are based on the pay service's universe, which the premium network says totals about 38 million HBO and Cinemax subscribers.
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Most of the Sex viewers stayed around to sample Carnivale, a dark drama set against the backdrop of a 1930s traveling carnival. The show opened with a strong 10.6 rating and 5.3 million viewers. It became the most-watched premiere of any HBO original, edging out the premiere of now-hit Six Feet Under by about 300,000 viewers.
But the audience thinned out for the debut of K Street, about a fictional Washington D.C. lobby firm that stars actors and real-life consultants James Carville and Mary Matalin and features politicians. The debut episode attracted a 6.7 rating and 3 million viewers.
