Showtime announced its biggest Sunday audience ever as "Dexter" scored its highest-rated premiere so far and "Homeland" was up 60 percent from its first season premiere.
"Homeland" returned for its second season a week after winning a slew of Emmy awards that helped boost the terrorism drama's profile.
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Sunday's season 2 opener of "Homeland" at 10 p.m. drew 1.73 million total viewers, besting by far the series premiere of the show, with drew 1.08 million. The episode also set a Showtime record for season two premieres, which had previously been held by Shameless."
When encore airings of the premiere are factored in, Sunday's "Homeland" premiere pulled in 2.07 million total viewers — a 50 percent jump from the season one premiere.
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"Homeland" also surpassed the first season's finale.
The season 7 premiere of "Dexter," meanwhile, gave the series its highest-rated season debut to date, delivering 3.04 million total viewers for the night — a 10 percent climb over its previous season premiere, and also an improvement over its season 6 finale, which drew 2.71 million total viewers.
Sunday night's "Dexter" premiere us currently Showtime's highest-rated telecast of the year, a distinction that was previously held by a March episode of "Shameless," which posted 1.6 million total viewers.