Wednesday, May 20, 2026

HBO Says “The Gilded Age” Hit Series High Ratings Last Week, But Not on Their Channel, Where Numbers Declined

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We all love “The Gilded Age.” It’s become a surefire hit soap opera, eye candy and full of intrigue befitting the legacies of “Dynasty” and “Dallas” (not so much “Downton Abbey”).

HBO says this past Sunday’s episode scored a series high rating of 3.8 million viewers. That’s impressive since the linear rating was just 520,000 viewers, actually down slightly from the previous week.

What does this mean? I guess the answer is that many fewer people are watching HBO on cable than on streaming. “The Gilded Age” is shown twice on HBO, at 9pm and 10pm. HBO Max must be booming. Is this an indication that customers are cutting their cable services dramatically? Could be.

There are four more episodes this season, and all signs point to a fourth season renewal. HBO should be able to get five seasons out of this series. The quality level is exceptional, the story telling is brisk, and the actors are all A plus.

The number of Broadway giants in every scene is sort of mind blowing. Phylicia Rashad, Audra McDonald, Donna Murphy, Nathan Lane — wow — not to mention Christine Baranski, Cynthia Nixon, and so on.

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009 and previously edited Fame magazine and wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. is articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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