Thanks, Tony Soprano
By Mark La Monica
A common complaint about "The Sopranos" the past few seasons is that nothing ever happens on the show anymore, aside from the occasional 30 seconds for a whacking.
Well, here's one thing that did happen: it gave quite a boost to the ratings for "Entourage."
Last Sunday's Season 3.5 premiere for Entourage received a 7.8 rating / 11 share. Translation: 3.8 million people watched the show during its initial airing Sunday at 10 p.m. on HBO, the mothership of its multiplex network.
The Season 3 premiere, which did not have "The Sopranos" or any other significant HBO property as a lead-in, did a 6.0 rating / 8 share, or roughly 2.7 million viewers.
An HBO source did point out that these numbers reflect only the initial airing and do not include repeat airings later in the week across their other channels or HBO on Demand.
What does all of this mean? Entourage isn't going anywhere anytime soon.