HBO Renews “Boardwalk Empire” for Second Season After Premiere

That didn’t take long.

HBO has renewed its new prohibition-era drama “Boardwalk Empire” for a second season after just one episode in the can, according to reports.

It helped that the show's $18 million Martin Scorcese-directed pilot garnered 4.8 million viewers on Sunday to become HBO’s most-watched series premiere since “Deadwood” drew in 5.79 million views in 2004, MediaWeek reported.

With two encore presentations on Sunday, “Boardwalk” starring Steve Buscemi as 1920’s Atlantic City political boss Enoch “Nucky” Thompson actually scored 7.1 million total viewers for the night, according to the trade pub.

That compares to HBO's vampire juggernaut “True Blood” having only drawn 1.44 million viewers for its September 2008 premiere, MediaWeek reported.

“All the ingredients aligned for this one, from [producers] Mark Wahlberg and Steve Levinson’s initial pitch, to Martin Scorsese’s enormous contributions as director and executive producer, to the genius of [executive producer] Terry Winter and the expertise of [producer] Tim Van Patten, to a stellar cast led by Steve Buscemi,” said HBO’s president of programming, Michael Lombardo, in a statement.

“The response from the media and our viewers has been nothing short of amazing.”

Selected Reading: MediaWeek, Deadline, Daily News
 

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