‘Big Little Lies’ Season 2 Finale Brings Series-High Ratings

Meaghan Darwish July 23, 2019, 1:45 pm

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Big Little Lies knows its audience well as the Season 2 finale sucked viewers in for a must-see courtroom battle between Celeste (Nicole Kidman) and Mary Louise (Meryl Streep).

The installment titled “I Want to Know” has pulled the show’s highest viewership throughout its HBO run. Seemingly serving as the show’s “series” finale — if the ladies can’t or don’t want to return to Monterey — the episode drew in just under 2 million viewers with initial reports coming in at 1.98 million.

It’s the show’s highest rating next to the Season 1 finale which had 1.86 million viewers back in 2017. The number should come as no surprise considering the drama’s all-star cast, including Kidman, Streep, Reese Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley, Laura Dern and Zoe Kravitz.

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This initial report does not include streaming or next-day viewers which means the rating is likely to go up significantly. Season 2 also improved upon the averages set by Season 1, no doubt in part because of the show’s buzz and cast addition of Streep.

The numbers may not be in same realm as Game of Thrones for HBO (the show pulled in 19.3 million for its series finale), but they’re proof fans can’t get enough of the Monterey Five and their most recent adversary. It remains to be seen if the show will have the opportunity to best themselves as a third season remains uncertain.

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Considering the finale’s conclusion — a group outing to the police station presumably to confess to their crime — another chapter seems less likely than it did following the breakout success of the first season. Liane Moriarty’s book was the inspiration behind Season 1, and in Season 2 she provided a novella of sorts for David E. Kelley to reference.

Thankfully, Moriarty gave a blessing for a third season back in May to TV Insider, “I’d still love to see it, I never want anything to end,” Moriarty said. “I’m not the sort of person who watches a show and thinks it should stop, I think ‘keep going forever,’ but I think I’m done from my involvement. I’m busy writing my next novel.”