Dexter Premiere Best in History, Homeland Up 60%

I can't say I'm surprised that Dexter's ratings were up this year, as we were left with one hell of a cliffhanger last season. What is amazing however as is each year's premiere of the show has been bigger ratings-wise than the last. Moving into season seven now, that's an impressive feat, and one I'm not sure has been replicated across any other modern show for this long.

Dexter drew 2.4M viewers last night, averaging 3M for the night. It was a fantastic lead-in for Homeland, which after its string of Emmy wins recently, was up a whopping 60% over last year to 1.73M viewers, then averaging 2.07M later.

Dexter is ending after season eight, as announced by the showrunners previously. If current trends are any indication, it may in fact be pulling a "Seinfeld" and going out on top. The only difference Seinfeld was a network show while Dexter is on a pay channel, hence the vastly lower numbers. For an example, Parks and Recreation on NBC is said to be struggling with 4M viewers, but 3M for Dexter is a huge success. I suppose it helps when your channel costs $8-15 by itself.

What will the numbers look like next week? Deb's knowledge went from limited to vast over the course of the premiere, and as such another cliffhanger was formed. Fortunately, we only have to wait a few more days rather than months to find out what happens next.