Viewership Slides For Series Finale Of HBO Max’s ‘And Just Like That…’

Sarah Jessica Parker, left, and Sarita Choudhury on HBO Max’s recently ended “And Just Like That.”

Craig Blankenhorn/Max

And Just Like That… just didn’t draw as much interest for this year’s season finale, which was also the sometimes-controversial comedy’s series finale. Viewership slipped for the season 3 ender, which aired August 14 on HBO Max.

The episode averaged 509,000 U.S. households during the live-plus-three-day viewing period, according to Samba TV, which provides TV technology for audience data and omniscreen measurement. That was up very slightly (1%) over the previous week’s episode, part one of the two-part series ender and up a good deal from the season 3 premiere.

But it was off 7% from the season 2 finale, which averaged 544,000 U.S. households in 2023. And it was less than half the 1.1 million U.S. households that tuned in for the season one premiere. The show had seen marked declines since that highly anticipated return.

Notably, the show skewed older. Households 45-54, who were slightly younger than the women they watched on screen, overindexed by 14% for the series finale.

The show still drew solid numbers for HBO Max, which has a smaller distribution than a behemoth like Netflix. But there’s no denying that the once-golden comedy starring Sarah Jessica Parker lost steam as the reboot continued.

Why Did Viewership For And Just Like That… Decline?

It may have been inevitable that And Just Like That… would drop off. Its return was a huge cultural milestone, coming more than a decade after the foursome of the original series left their hugely successful run. So when HBO Max announced the series reboot, it received massive attention and likely drew many curious viewers who perhaps did not have the devotion to the original.

The series originally aired on HBO from 1998 to 2004. It was one of the first pay cable series to attract a larger mainstream audience and sparked two feature film releases that were also successful.

When HBO Max announced the reboot, it seemed like a surefire hit. It premiered in December 2021, almost two years after the pandemic began and people were still seeking nostalgic TV.

But more than a decade is a long time to be off the air, and when And Just Like That … returned, it did so to a television landscape that was quite different, and notably more diverse, than when it left. The show made arguably well-intentioned but clunkily executed attempts to get with the times, resulting in storylines that frustrated some fans because they undid some of the show’s popular couplings and character depictions.

And Just Like That… Inspired Passion On Both Sides

Still, the people who loved it continued to remain devoted to the end, with some saying it improved this last season. And those who hated the reboot seemed to love to hate on it, too. The internet is ablaze with Reddit forums, magazine articles and blog posts detailing why main character Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) is the worst and how the writers disrespected the original.

Whether that’s actually true or people just like to complain more 21 years after the original’s finale is certainly up for similar debate. The show was still popular enough to warrant another season if co-creator Michael Patrick King had wanted to extend it.