True Blood

Renewed on fairly lack-luster numbers last season, True Blood has turned out to be a safe bet for HBO. Whether you can attribute it to the general resurgence of interest in the Vampire genre, or in True Blood's own unique vision the Alan Ball helmed series is now HBO's top player.

The recent ratings data for cable shows True Blood crushing HBO mainstay Entourage nearly 3-to-1 factoring in DVR viewers.  True Blood is averaging 4.6 million live viewers, with another 4.3 coming in on subsequent airings.  Entourage and new HBO offering Hung, which is great by the way, are averaging a very healthy 2.8 million.  If those numbers sound low its because you haven't got your head around the 'cable' numbers.  Cable markets are nowhere near as big as the network world, comparatively True Blood is basically a House or at worst a Fringe.

These sorts of numbers more or less guarantee a long future for True Blood, although one problem that seems to plague these shows is that most of the talent contracts are negotiated a season or two at a time with no pricy long term options like those thrown around by the big four (ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX).  That translates into negotiating leverage for key cast and creative team members.  It would seem the only thing that could bring True Blood down now would be the cost.