The ratings for the two-hour premiere of season two of “Dallas,” the revival of the fabled soap on the TNT cable channel, are not going to do much to relieve the down mood left after the death of the show’s central star, Larry Hagman.

Monday night, the show attracted an audience smaller than any episode in its first season, and one significantly lower than the show’s premiere had in 2012.

For the first time, “Dallas” fell below three million viewers, with 2.97 million for the premiere. Last season, the show averaged about 4.2 million viewers, and its least-watched episode attracted 3.24 million.

The premiere episode last season pulled in more than twice as many viewers with 6.86 million. And the finale last season was also a success, with 4.28 million.

The news was equally grim among the viewers whom TNT is looking to reach to sell to advertisers. Monday’s show was lower than only one episode last year in its ratings for viewers in the two groups of most interest to advertisers, those between the ages of 18 and 49 and 25 and 54.

Article source: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/30/ratings-drop-for-season-premiere-of-dallas/?partner=rss&emc=rss