The premiere of IT: Welcome to Derry enticed a lot of viewers back into Pennywise’s clutches.

The HBO series debuted to 5.7 million cross-platform viewers (measured over three days), making Welcome to Derry the third biggest series debut in HBO’s history. It trails only the premieres of House of the Dragon — which had nearly 10 million day-one viewers in 2022 — and The Last of Us , which opened with 4.7 million on its first night in 2023 and moved well past 5.7 million in following the three days.

IT: Welcome to Derry is a prequel to the It movies, which are based on Stephen King’s novel. The show is set in Derry, Maine, in the early 1960s — during one of the “cycles” in which the shape-shifting killer clown Pennywise resurfaces to wreak havoc.

The premiere of IT: We

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