True Blood is a Ratings Winner for HBO

Over at HBO, "True Blood" surged more than 20% week to week to set series records (2.8/8 in 18-49, 5.33 million viewers overall). In the demo, the vampire skein ranked third among all primetime programs for the week.

The premiere telecast was the first HBO series episode to top 5 million viewers since the finale of "The Sopranos" drew 11.9 million in June 2007. And excluding "Sopranos," it's the largest premiere-night audience for an HBO series since 5.4 million tuned in for the fourth episode of "Deadwood" (which aired behind "Sopranos") in April 2004.

"True Blood" is opening up some distance on skedmates "Hung" (1.7/5 in 18-49, 3.28m) and "Entourage" (1.9/5 in 18-49, 3.18m), although they were both up as well.