“Killing Eve” kicked off season 3 in typically deadly fashion, with a suitably tragic character death.
Ratings-wise, the episode was watched by 1.1 million total viewers across both AMC and BBC America, which is down only a fraction on the season 2 premiere’s tally of 1.2 million, still the series high to date. However, that figure is still 4% higher than the season 2 Live+Same Day total viewership average.
In terms of the demographic breakdown, the premiere scored 424,000 total viewers among adults 25-54 and 330,000 among adults 18-49. The former numbers is down a little from the season 2 premiere (but up 33% from the finale and 8% from the season 2 average), while the latter is up a minute amount on last season’s debut (and also better than the season 2 finale by almost 30% and the season 2 average by 12%).
“Killing Eve” stars Sandra Oh as MI5 agent Eve Polastri, and Jodie Comer as the psychopathic assassin Villanelle. Season 3 is being showrun by Suzanne Heathcote, who took over from Emerald Fennell in season 2 and creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge in season 1. The series has already been renewed for a fourth outing, with no word yet as to who will be in charge of the subsequent season.
During an interview with Variety, Heathcote discussed the significance of the aforementioned death and teased what else viewers can expect in season 3.
“I really felt something very significant personally had to happen to really pull Eve back in to that world,” Heathcote said. “It couldn’t just be professional — it would never be enough. It had to be something bigger than that.”
Based on the “Codename Villanelle” novellas by Luke Jennings, the third season of “Killing Eve” is executive produced by Sally Woodward Gentle, Lee Morris, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Gina Mingacci, Damon Thomas, and Oh. Jeff Melvoin also joins as an executive producer on Season 3.