TV Ratings: 'True Blood', Ch4

Channel 4 aired the terrestrial premiere of True Blood's second season on Thursday night, but the vampire drama's long-awaited return only attracted 980,000 viewers at 10pm, with a lowly 51,000 watching on the time-shifted Channel 4+1. This is especially disappointing because True Blood's series premiere last year lured 1.6 million eyeballs, so it's lost a sizeable chunk of its audience since then. Why is this..?

While you can never be sure, but given how passionate True Blood's fanbase is, I'd say the majority of British fans have already seen season 2 -- via online torrents way back last summer, or perhaps on digital channel FX earlier this year. If so, it's evidence that the arrangement Channel 4 has with FX to alternate broadcast months after seasons debut in the States, just isn't good enough. Fans simply won't wait 12-months for new episodes, knowing they'll be an entire season behind the US -- particularly as many fans are teenagers/young adults who spend time on Facebook/Twitter and thus have the hassle of trying to avoid online spoilers.

At the very least, FX should be premiering season 3 now (immediately following HBO's finale last weekend), with Channel 4 showing the same season just after Christmas -- a gap of approximately 4 months from the HBO premiere. That would perhaps satisfy less voracious fans who aren't so exposed to online chatter, but it would obviously be preferable if FX aired episodes days/weeks behind HBO's schedule, meaning Channel 4 staredt their run in September. Something tells me nothing's going to change, but perhaps if ratings continue to slide Channel 4 may try to renegotiate their scheduling for season 3... maybe.