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.
The comedy’s companion on Sunday, the second episode of limited series DTF St. Louis, grew 12% from its first week, tallying 2.8 million U.S. viewers.
Set on a college campus, Rooster centers on an author’s (Carell) complicated relationship with his daughter (Charly Clive). Danielle Deadwyler, Phil Dunster, John C. McGinley, and Lauren Tsai also star. Connie Britton is recurring.
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Co-showrunners Lawrence and Tarses executive produce with Doozer’s Jeff Ingold and Liza Katzer, Jonathan Krisel, Barbie Adler, Annie Mebane, David Stassen, Anthony King, David Hyman, and Steve Carell. The studio is Warner Bros. Television, where both Doozer and Tarses are under overall deals.
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