Bill Skarsgard in 'IT: Welcome to Derry' Brooke Palmer/HBO Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment 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. Related Stories Movies Ronan Farrow Is Turning His New Yorker Story on Serial Predator Sean Williams Into an HBO Doc TV John Oliver on Trump's White House Demolition: "A Metaphor That Is, If Anything, Too on the Nose" The premiere ends with a shocking bit of violence that upends the way the two movies unfolded - purposely, IT filmmakers Andy and Barbara Muschietti told The Hollywood Reporter (spoilers contained in that link). "We did two movies already. One thing that we didn't want was to - given that we're using the same tone and the style as the movies - get people too familiar [with the story mechanics]. We really wanted to create a subversion to get people excited. It has to do also with raising the volume a little in terms of intensity and spectacle." As is almost always the case with HBO shows in recent years, the vast majority of Welcome to Derry's 5.7 million viewers watched the show after its on-air premiere. Nielsen figures have the first airing of the show on HBO at just 334,000 viewers (which is itself up from the 214,000 for Task's debut in September), meaning that about 94 percent of the total audience came from streaming on HBO Max and on-air replays at HBO. THR Newsletters Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day Subscribe Sign Up Live Feed FX Renews Gen Z Comedy 'Adults' For Second Season Live Feed 'King of the Hill' Renewed for Seasons 16 and 17 at Hulu streaming How to Watch the 2025 NBA Cup In-Season Tournament Online Without Cable Elaine Hendrix Elaine Hendrix Shares Update on Injury, 'Dancing With The Stars' Future Will Smith Floyd Roger Myers Jr., 'Fresh Prince of Bel-Air' Actor, Dies at 42 Taylor Sheridan Comcast Chief Says It, When NBCUniversal Won't Yet: Taylor Sheridan Is a Huge Deal Live Feed FX Renews Gen Z Comedy 'Adults' For Second Season Live Feed 'King of the Hill' Renewed for Seasons 16 and 17 at Hulu streaming How to Watch the 2025 NBA Cup In-Season Tournament Online Without Cable Elaine Hendrix Elaine Hendrix Shares Update on Injury, 'Dancing With The Stars' Future Will Smith Floyd Roger Myers Jr., 'Fresh Prince of Bel-Air' Actor, Dies at 42 Taylor Sheridan Comcast Chief Says It, When NBCUniversal Won't Yet: Taylor Sheridan Is a Huge Deal