“Westworld” renewed for 2nd season at HBO, may nor air until 2018

PanARMENIAN.Net - HBO has booked a return ticket to Westworld.

The premium cable network has renewed the freshman drama for a second season of 10 episodes to air in either fall 2017 or 2018, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

"Westworld is such a big, ambitious show. I don't know if it will be fall of 2017 or into '18," HBO programming president Casey Bloys told THR. "That will depend as we get up and running. With Westworld, because the production is such a big endeavor, I don't exactly know when [it will premiere] yet. I can't speculate other than to say it'll either be '17 or '18. Probably more like '18 and half-hours [Insecure and Divorce] in '17 but we're a year away so let's see how it goes."

The star-studded sci-fi Western about a futuristic amusement park where visitors live out their wildest fantasies in a world populated by robots came in with high expectations — and budget in the $100 million range for its first 10-episode season.

The series opened to a promising start Oct. 2 with nearly 2 million viewers tuning in live-plus-same-day returns for the supersized premiere. Factoring in HBO Go and HBO Now streams, that spikes to 3.3 million total viewers. All told, an estimated 6 million watched the debut, including on-demand and multiple network plays. Episode two, offered early on streaming and VOD platforms to subscribers, scored a combined 2.7 million viewers. The drama, which has taken a live-same-day hit when airing against AMC juggernaut The Walking Dead, has made up that difference on DVR and On-Demand/HBO Go returns. Season to date, Westworld is averaging a gross audience of 11.7 million total viewers — besting Game of Thrones and True Detective during their comparable first-season frames.