‘Yellowjackets’ Season 2 Premiere Doubles Audience During Debut Week With Nearly 4M Viewers

Season 2 of Yellowjackets had a buzzy premiere week.

The debut episode has hit just about 4M viewers across linear and digital platforms, which is double the live viewership. According to Showtime, that’s the best premiere week for the network since Dexter: New Blood in November 2021.

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Showtime didn’t release numbers for the second episode, which was released Friday on streaming and aired on Sunday, but the network says that the average daily conversation volume around the show continues to grow since Episode 2 hit digital platforms. Viewership data for the second episode’s linear airing isn’t quite available yet.

It’s difficult to compare this performance to last season, because similar data isn’t available. The Season 1 finale drew 1.3M viewers, so that would indicate that the second season has had a strong debut.

Season 1, which earned a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes and received seven Emmy nominations, averaged more than 5M weekly viewers across platforms, the highest for a freshman series on the network since Billions in early 2016. It was the second-most streamed series in Showtime history.

Created by Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson (Narcos), Yellowjackets stars Melanie Lynskey (Castle Rock), Juliette Lewis (Camping), Christina Ricci (Z: The Beginning of Everything) and Tawny Cypress (Unforgettable). Lauren Ambrose (Six Feet Under, Servant) and Simone Kessell (Obi-Wan Kenobi) have also joined the second season as series regulars, along with Elijah Wood (The Lord of the Rings trilogy) in a seasonlong guest arc.

Equal parts survival epic, psychological horror story and coming-of-age drama, Yellowjackets is the saga of a team of wildly talented high school girls soccer players who become the unlucky survivors of a plane crash deep in the remote northern wilderness. The series chronicles their descent from a complicated but thriving team to savage clans, while also tracking the lives they’ve attempted to piece back together nearly 25 years later, proving that the past is never really past and what began out in the wilderness is far from over.

Season 2 also stars Sophie Nélisse, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Sophie Thatcher, Samantha Hanratty, Courtney Eaton, Liv Hewson, Steven Krueger, Warren Kole and Kevin Alves. 

Yellowjackets is executive produced by Lyle, Nickerson and fellow showrunner Jonathan Lisco. Drew Comins of Creative Engine also serves as executive producer. Karyn Kusama directed the pilot.

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