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HBO's 'Succession' Sets Viewer Mark for Fourth-Season Start

Brian Cox attends the premiere of HBO's "Succession" season four at Jazz at Lincoln Center on Monday, March 20, 2023, in New York. (AP)
Brian Cox attends the premiere of HBO's "Succession" season four at Jazz at Lincoln Center on Monday, March 20, 2023, in New York. (AP)
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HBO's 'Succession' Sets Viewer Mark for Fourth-Season Start

Brian Cox attends the premiere of HBO's "Succession" season four at Jazz at Lincoln Center on Monday, March 20, 2023, in New York. (AP)
Brian Cox attends the premiere of HBO's "Succession" season four at Jazz at Lincoln Center on Monday, March 20, 2023, in New York. (AP)

HBO's “Succession” opened its fourth and final season with a record first-night audience of 2.3 million viewers, the Nielsen company said on Tuesday.

That tops the previous high for the drama about a backbiting family of media moguls. It beat the 1.7 million who watched last season's finale the first night it was available, Nielsen said.

For HBO, the first-night audience is usually only a fraction of the number of people who will watch one of their shows. For example, each episode last season averaged 7.2 million viewers when delayed viewing is taken into account.

The numbers indicate that more people are catching on to the two-time Emmy winner for best drama just as it is approaching the end. There was anticipation for the season premiere, with HBO saying there was four times the viewership of previous “Succession” episodes on HBO Max last week compared to the week before.

The first episode showed how much things are strained between family patriarch Logan Roy and three of his four children, critic Brian Lowry wrote for CNN.

“There was a lot going on in this season opener, but the premiere's primary function involved setting the stage for the battles and challenges to come,” Lowry wrote.

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‘Freakier Friday’ Goes Bolder with Family Bonds and Body Swaps 

Lindsay Lohan, left, and Jamie Lee Curtis pose for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film "Freakier Friday" on Thursday, July 31, 2025, in London. (AP)
Lindsay Lohan, left, and Jamie Lee Curtis pose for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film "Freakier Friday" on Thursday, July 31, 2025, in London. (AP)
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‘Freakier Friday’ Goes Bolder with Family Bonds and Body Swaps 

Lindsay Lohan, left, and Jamie Lee Curtis pose for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film "Freakier Friday" on Thursday, July 31, 2025, in London. (AP)
Lindsay Lohan, left, and Jamie Lee Curtis pose for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film "Freakier Friday" on Thursday, July 31, 2025, in London. (AP)

Stepping into the body of a British teenage girl trying to hide her emotional pain was tricky for actor Jamie Lee Curtis, who reprised her role from the movie “Freaky Friday,” along with Lindsay Lohan, for the sequel “Freakier Friday.”

“We labored to make sure that we came up with tics and behaviors and words that would help you know that we have switched into each other,” Curtis told Reuters, referring to the body switch Tess has with her future step-granddaughter named Lily, played by Sophia Hammons.

Disney's “Freakier Friday,” which arrives in theaters on Friday, continues the story of a dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship that was introduced by Curtis and Lohan in the 2003 movie.

The 2003 comedy film became a cult classic for American millennials, embedded in popular culture.

Twenty-two years after Tess and her daughter Anna Coleman, played by Lohan, had their bodies swapped, Anna now has a daughter and a British soon-to-be stepdaughter.

While navigating a new blended family, Tess and Anna experience an even bigger body swap spell that threatens to tear the future of the family apart.

While “Freaky Friday” had one body swap, “Freakier Friday” takes things to the next level when Anna swaps with her daughter and Tess swaps with her soon-to-be granddaughter.

Things were so confusing during the script table readings that Curtis made everyone wear hats to help them remember with whom their body had been swapped.

“As soon as the switch happened, we put on hats that had the new name so that you could understand,” Curtis said.

However, she noted that later when it was the ensemble of women and girls working on-camera together with less “cooks in the kitchen,” things felt less complicated.

As a mom in both real life and in the film, Lohan found compassion for her character’s parenting journey.

“It was refreshing to play Anna and show her off in a different light, where she's not grumpy and yelling at her mom, and where she can be struggling, trying to manage her daughter and being a mom,” Lohan said.

“Now, bringing that to the role was exciting for me, because it's a role I've never played before. I was able to take things from home and daily life moments and put them to Anna.”

Lohan said it was special to have Curtis' guidance on how to balance real-life mom duties with acting work while they filmed the movie.