HBO’s super-hyped Beyoncé special generated strong ratings for the cable network over the weekend. Saturday’s premiere telecast of Beyoncé: Life Is But a Dream drew 1.8 million viewers, making it the most watched HBO documentary since at least 2004 (and bigger than the first part of the 2006 Spike Lee joint When the Levees Broke, which brought in 1.7 million viewers).* It’s also a much bigger same-day audience than some HBO series, including Girls (which generally pulls in about half as many viewers as Bey’s special) and Enlightened (which sadly averages around 250,000 viewers on Sundays). UPDATE: Oprah Winfrey’s pre-game chat with Beyonce also did well, bringing in 1.3 million viewers for OWN and outdrawing everything else on cable in the 8 p.m. timeslot among the network’s target audience of women aged 25-54.
* Corrected to clarify that the Beyoncementary gave HBO its best doc ratings in at least 2004