The White Lotus Season 3 Ratings Reveal Appointment TV Is Alive and Well

Though the binge-watching model of television popularized in the streaming era has changed how a lot of people watch TV, there’s still nothing like sitting down to watch a show live, knowing that millions of people around the world are doing the same. Whereas people used to gather around water coolers in their offices to chat about a show’s latest episode the morning after it aired, social media has now become a virtual water cooler of sorts, making it even easier to react in real time as dramatic events unfold on screen and connect with others watching the same thing across the world.

Even as binge watching continues to grow, HBO has stayed a leader of must-watch appointment TV over the years. The White Lotus’ season 3 premiere alone had 2.4 million viewers, according to an HBO press release. This is a 57% increase from the season 2 premiere and a 155% increase from the season 1 premiere. This is the kind of growth you can get from word of mouth and people actively talking about a show every week for a month or more.

But it’s not just The White Lotus’ season 3 premiere that proves that appointment TV is alive and well. Other recent HBO shows like Euphoria, House of the Dragon, Succession, and The Last of Us have also brought in millions of viewers in their Sunday night slots.

FOMO or the fear of missing out has long been a driving force of appointment TV – you don’t want to be the one person in the group who doesn’t have an opinion on The White Lotus’ new theme song or Jason Isaacs’ Southern accent – and social media has made it even harder to not feel like you’re missing out if you aren’t tuning into these shows every week. Not only is it incredibly difficult to avoid spoilers, but you can also miss out on some pretty great memes if you aren’t watching live.

The White Lotus is a great example of how a show can grow in viewership if you give it time and let it find its audience. Though there are a couple cast members who have appeared in more than one season, the show is effectively an anthology, changing location and cast every season. This also means that it’s a fairly easy show for people to jump in on at the beginning of a season. You don’t necessarily have to have watched the first two outings in full before tuning into the third. You get to learn who everyone is as well as their motives and desires in real time along with everyone else tuning in to the show.

Appointment TV is all about letting things simmer. With a week between episodes, people get to talk and theorize about what could be coming next, something that’s missing in the urgency of binge watching. It’s almost always a good time for TV when HBO has a Sunday night show, and we can’t wait to spend the next several weeks tuning in with everyone else.