It: Welcome to Derry, the HBO prequel series to Stephen King’s supernatural horror film franchise, is serving up the scares with 5.7 million cross-platform viewers across the first three days of its debut on 26 October.
As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, these figures make It: Welcome to Derry the third biggest series debut in HBO’s history, following behind 2022’s House of the Dragon at nearly 10 million day-one viewers and 2023’s The Last of Us, which opened to 4.7 million viewers on its first night and promptly exceeded 5.7 million viewers in the following three days.
In addition, it was reported that a vast majority of viewers watched the show after its on-air premiere on HBO, with stats from audience measurement data site Nielsen placing the first airing of the show on HBO at just 334,000 viewers, meaning that a bulk of its audience came from streaming on HBO Max and on-air replays.
Serving as a prequel to 2017’s It and its 2019 sequel, It: Chapter Two, It: Welcome to Derry is set in Derry, Maine, in the early 1960s, and follows a new cast of characters as they face off against the shape-shifting killer clown Pennywise. The show’s cast includes Taylour Paige and Jovan Adepo as Charlotte and Leroy Hanlon, James Remar as General Shaw, Stephen Rider as Hank Grogan, and Bill Skarsgård, who returns from the films to portray Pennywise.
It: Welcome to Derry premiered on HBO on 26 October 2026, with the show’s synopsis reading: “In 1962, a couple with their son move to Derry, Maine, just as a young boy disappears. With their arrival, very bad things begin to happen in the town.”
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
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