The second season of “Euphoria” is a dream for HBO. Over the first three installments of its second season, the Zendaya-led drama has nearly doubled its Season 1 per-episode viewership, Variety has learned exclusively.
The “Euphoria” Season 2 premiere, which first aired Jan. 9, has drawn 13.1 million viewers across multiple HBO and HBO Max to date, with Episodes 2 and 3 tracking similarly, per HBO. That is close to +100% the 6.6 million average audience size that was drawn by Season 1 episodes in-season during summer 2019.
The first season of “Euphoria” aired in a pre-HBO Max world, but the show was available via HBO Now and HBO Go at that time.
On Sunday, “Euphoria” Season 2, Episode 4 drew 3.2 million viewers across three linear airings on HBO and streams on HBO Max, Variety is told. That makes it “Euphoria’s” second-most-watched episode ever, only behind Episode 3 of Season 2, which drew 3.6 million viewers on Jan. 23. Viewership for the premiere night of Episode 4 was up 166% vs. the Sunday night viewership of Season 1’s fourth episode.
Up until its fourth episode, “Euphoria” Season 2 hit a new series high in viewership each week from its Jan. 9 premiere. And when it dipped slightly this past Sunday, it had the much-watched NFC Championship game on Fox to compete with in its 9 p.m. time slot.
The eight-episode second season of “Euphoria” follows the intertwining lives in the town of East Highland, focusing on teenager Rue (Zendaya), who must find hope while balancing the pressures of love, loss and addiction.
Along with Emmy winner Zendaya, “Euphoria” Season 2 stars Hunter Schafer, Nika King, Eric Dane, Angus Cloud, Jacob Elordi, Algee Smith, Sydney Sweeney, Alexa Demie, Barbie Ferreira, Maude Apatow, Javon Walton, Dominic Fike, Storm Reid and Austin Abrams.
“Euphoria” is created, written and executive produced by Sam Levinson, who directs all episodes of Season 2.