Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s comedy “Ballers” has been renewed for a third season at HBO, Variety has confirmed.
Johnson broke the news via his Instagram.
While not necessarily a critical darling, “Ballers” finished out its first season as the network’s most-watched comedy in six years, once viewership from all airings and streaming were tallied. According to HBO, 8.8 million people watched each episode within seven days. The Season 1 finale garnered 1.43 million viewers in Nielsen’s live-plus-same-day count.
In its first two episodes of Season 2, ratings have settled into the 1.3-million range in L+SD, with a .6 rating in the 18-49 demographic, with 5.7 million having checked out the second season premiere since July 17. While that kind of viewership lift through delayed viewing and streaming could be troublesome for ad-supported networks, since HBO’s business depends on subscribership, when people watch is less important than the mere fact of them watching (and subscribing).
In addition to Johnson, the cast on Season Two of “Ballers” includes Rob Corddry, John David Washington, Omar Benson Miller, Donovan Carter, Troy Garity, Jazmyn Simon, London Brown, Arielle Kebbel, Dulé Hill, Richard Schiff, and Andy Garcia.
“Ballers” was created by Stephen Levinson and executive produced by Johnson, Stephen Levinson, Mark Wahlberg, Dany Garcia, Peter Berg, Evan Reilly, Rob Weiss, Julian Farino, and Denis Biggs.
