HBO’s ‘The White Lotus’ Draws Biggest Audience Yet — And It’s Already Been Renewed For Third Season

Topline

HBO’s hit miniseries The White Lotus broke a series audience record on Sunday ahead of the season 2 finale next week, as the comical vacation murder mystery draws award show acclaim and prepares for a third season.

Key Facts

Some 2.8 million viewers watched the penultimate sixth episode of Season 2 of The White Lotus on Sunday on HBO Max and on linear viewing, according to Warner Bros. Discovery, up from the 2.3 million people who watched the fifth episode last week.

It’s an increase of 1.3 million viewers from the 1.5 million who watched the Season 2 premiere in October, which was a 63% jump from the 944,000 people who watched the Season 1 premiere in 2021.

The White Lotus was renewed for Season 3 last month, though its cast and locale have not yet been announced.

Big Number

10. That’s how many Emmys the first season of The White Lotus won this year. It was nominated for 20. Its accolades include wins for Outstanding Limited Or Anthology Series, Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie (Murray Bartlett As Armond) and Outstanding Supporting Actress in the same division (Jennifer Coolidge as Tanya).

Key Background

The White Lotus was created and is helmed by Mike White. Each season of the show follows a cast of oddball characters who don’t know each other and who visit or work at an imaginary White Lotus resort somewhere around the world, when a death—or in the case of season two, deaths—takes place during their stay. The first season was in Hawaii and starred Jennifer Coolidge as Tanya, a woman on vacation by herself who hoped to spread her mother’s ashes, and other famed actors like Connie Britton, Steve Zahn, Sydney Sweeney, Jake Lacy, Alexandra Daddario and Molly Shannon. The second season takes place in Sicily, and Coolidge and her character’s husband, played by Jon Gries, are the only carryovers from the first season. This season’s vacationers include Michael Imperioli as an American father hoping to reconnect with his Italian relatives along with his father and son, and Aubrey Plaza, Will Sharpe, Theo James and Meghann Fahy as a pair of college buddies and their wives on a tension-filled trip together.

Tangent

Few details are known about The White Lotus’ third season. However, White said that Coolidge could be involved—though the most recent episode of Season 2 inferred her character was in danger heading into the finale. “​​Jennifer is my friend and everybody loved her in the first season, and I was like, ‘I can’t go to Italy without Jennifer.’ And maybe that’s still the case,” White told Deadline. “Like, maybe you can’t go to Japan without Jennifer, either. There are so many fun actors we’ve worked with so far, so it’s just kind of like who’s available.”