Rooster, HBO‘s new series from the Scrubs duo of Bill Lawrence and Matt Tarses, which is headlined by Steve Carell, premiered to 2.4 million U.S. cross-platform viewers in its first three days of availability. While not a perfectly fair comparison since distribution has evolved dramatically over the past decade, Rooster stands as the most-watched HBO comedy debut in the U.S. in almost 11 years, since the June 2015 premiere of The Brink.
That may be a surprise since the political comedy only lasted a season. But like Rooster, it was headlined by well known stars, Jack Black and Tim Robbins. Broad comedies with big actors attached tend to open better vs. the creator-performer shows HBO has been leaning into as they need time to find an audience.
In a promising sign, Rooster‘s audience has grown 4x since premiere night.
Watch on Deadline
...Keep reading this article on DEADLINE.
