“Succession” ratings on linear HBO, the main channel, fell a bit on Sunday after hitting a high the previous week.
Sunday’s ratings were down 6% from last week, to about 650,000 viewers. So as much as we love “Succession” and it’s the talk of the town, it’s a niche show. The ratings are about half of “The Last of Us,” for example, which was bringing in over 1 million eyes to HBO.
On HBO Max, I’m sure, “Succession” adds another million. But we can’t monitor those numbers.
Meanwhile, I ran into two time Tony Awards winner Cherry Jones last night at a cocktail reception just before the opening “Good Night Oscar.” Jones is every bit on the level of Meryl Streep, an extraordinarily gifted performer who lights up everything she’s in.
“Succession” fans will recognize Jones as Nan Pierce, matriarch of the Pierce media family. The Pierces appeared in Season 2 when Logan Roy was trying to take over the company. Jones won an Emmy for that episode (and has two others, as well.) The Pierces reappeared in Episode 1 of Season 4. But in a different venue, which Jones questioned.
“How did they get from Long Island to Santa Barbara?” Cherry asked rhetorically. In Season 2 Nan was living in a mansion in what looked like Old Westbury, New York. It was very grand but also East Coast. This season, the Roys had to fly to Santa Barbara to see her. Indeed, the house Nan was living in this year is famous, a $30 million historic Montecito home now owned by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
“What was Nan Pierce doing living in that house?” Jones continued. “No one told me anything. So I decided she’d had a brother who’d died and left it to her. And she’s moved out there, or is spending part of her time there.”
Jones by the way is as obsessed with “Succession” as we are. She has no idea what’s going to happen but is fascinated about how it will all end. There’s a twist to that, however. “I’m bummed. I’m leaving for Prague next week for two months to shoot a film. I’ll be there when “Succession” ends on May 26th. I have no idea how to see it! My friends say I should get VPN, whatever that is!”
