Two weeks into Ballers’ sophomore run, the Dwayne Johnson comedy series has been renewed for a third season by HBO.
“Dwayne Johnson, Stephen Levinson, Mark Wahlberg and the rest of the Ballers team have once again delivered a winner for our viewers,” said HBO programming chief Casey Bloys who developed the series as head of comedy.
Looking at the whirlwind lifestyles and real-life problems of former and current football players, Ballers stars Dwayne Johnson as ex-superstar Spencer Strasmore, who has reinvented himself as a financial manager for today’s players in sun-soaked Miami.
The Season 2 premiere episode has amassed 5.7 million viewers to date, with only preliminary data available. Fueled by Johnson’s star power and social media reach, the Season 1 debut drew eye-popping snared 8.9 million viewers across HBO’s platforms, making it the premium pay cabler’s most-watched first episode of a half-hour series since 2009. That prompted another early renewal a couple of weeks into the show’s freshman run. Ballers’ first season went on to average 9.1 million viewers in gross audience – HBO’s biggest half-hour in six years.
In addition to Dwayne Johnson, the cast on season two of Ballers includes Rob Corddry, John David Washington, Omar Benson Miller, Donovan Carter, Troy Garity, Jazmyn Simon, London Brown, Arielle Kebbel, Dulé Hill, Richard Schiff and Andy Garcia.
Ballers was created by Stephen Levinson. he executive produces with Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia, Peter Berg, Evan Reilly, Rob Weiss, Julian Farino, Denis Biggs.