Vinyl: Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger's HBO show falling flat in the ratings

It attracted fewer people than Last Week Tonight With John Oliver

When it was announced that Martin Scorsese - THE Martin Scorsese, of The Departed, Goodfellas and Wolf of Wall Street fame - would be working with Mick Jagger - THE Mick Jagger, of Rolling Stones fame - to create a TV series about 70s music, Vinyl, there was much excitement across the blogosphere.

Unfortunately, the less than positive reviews have had a major impact on the show’s ratings, with only 764,000 people tuning into the premiere on HBO.

What’s startling is that Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, the show on directly after Vinyl, managed to draw over a million viewers, topping the much-anticipated show by over 200,000 people.

HBO’s last TV series to debut in the winter months was True Detective in 2014, which starred Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson as detectives. It drew in 2.3 million viewers even though it was up against a big NFL playoff game.

One of the many reasons Vinyl may have suffered is because it was up against the mid-season premiere of The Walking Dead on AMC, and opened in the middle of a three-day weekend.

There’s also the added factor that streaming services have come a long way since 2014, and viewers may be waiting to watch on HBO Go instead.

However, HBO was probably hoping for bigger numbers, especially considering that, not only was there star power behind the camera but also in front, with the likes of Bobby Cannavale, Juno Temple and Olivia Wilde all starring.

It recently came to light that Mick Jagger wanted to make Vinyl a film instead of a TV series.