Lauren "Lo" Smith/Paramount+

‘Lioness’ Season 3 Closes With 9.7 Million Viewers in Seven Days, a Series High and the No. 5 Paramount+ Finale Ever

by · Variety

“Lioness” showed strong audience growth throughout its third season and ended on a high note: The finale reached 9.7 million viewers in its first seven days of availability.

That total marks not only the most-watched episode in the series’ history, but the No. 5 most-watched finale of all time compared to other Paramount+ originals. Additionally, the series saw an average of 8.5 million viewers per week throughout Season 3, which ran from Aug. 2 to Sept. 20, showing a 62% increase from Season 2’s weekly average in 2024. Each week of Season 3 brought in more viewers than the week before it.

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“Lioness” also performed well compared to streaming programming on other networks, making it onto Nielsen and Luminate’s top 10 charts eight weeks in a row. Per Nielsen, the series achieved its first-ever billion-minute total during finale week, and Season 3 reached a cumulative 3.9 billion minutes watched during its eight-week run, up 62% from Season 2. Catch-up viewing was also strong, with Seasons 1 and 2 reaching a combined 2.5 million minutes watched in the same window.

“Lioness” was created by Taylor Sheridan and is produced by Paramount Television Studios and 101 Studios. Zoe Saldaña and Nicole Kidman star alongside Laysla De Oliveira, Genesis Rodriguez, Dave Annable, Jill Wagner, LaMonica Garrett, James Jordan, Austin Hébert, Jonah Wharton, Hannah Love Lanier, Thad Luckinbill, Ian Bohen, Michael Kelly, Morgan Freeman and Nicole Kidman. Sheridan executive produces with David C. Glasser, Saldaña, Kidman, Ron Burkle, David Hutkin, Bob Yari, Michael Friedman, Jill Wagner, David Lemanowicz, Geyer Kosinski and Keith Cox.