It Welcome to Derry debuts to 5.7M viewers, third-largest HBO Max

HBO’s highly anticipated Stephen King prequel series It Welcome to Derry debuted on October 26 and drew 5.7 million viewers across HBO’s linear channel and HBO Max in its first three days, Warner Bros. Discovery said, making it the third largest series premiere in the streamer’s history. Nielsen confirmed that the initial live broadcast reached about 334,000 viewers, indicating the vast majority of audiences watched via streaming or later replays.

Set in 1962, the eight-episode first season expands the world of King’s novel and the recent feature films, tracing the origins of the entity that becomes Pennywise the Dancing Clown. Bill Skarsgård reprises the role and serves as an executive producer. The series was created by Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti and Jason Fuchs; Fuchs wrote the first episode and co-runs the show with Brad Caleb Kane. The ensemble cast also includes Jovan Adepo, Taylour Paige, Chris Chalk, James Remar and Madeleine Stowe among others.

HBO released a nearly two-minute animated opening credits sequence ahead of the show’s early second-episode drop on Halloween. The sequence, produced by studio Filmograph and set to Patience and Prudence’s 1956 song A...