'Girls' premiere ratings rise while winning Golden Globe

Great night for HBO’s Girls. Not only did the acclaimed HBO comedy win the Golden Globe for best comedy series and star Lena Dunham took home an award for best comedy actress, the show’s premiere ratings were slightly stronger than last year.

Even with heavy competition from the Globes, Girls posted overall gains vs. last spring’s first season debut. Girls delivered 1.6 million viewers across three airings compared to 1.1 million across two airings last year. So it’s not really an apples-to-apples comparison, granted, but given that the Globes were posting big numbers last night, we’re inclined to agree with HBO’s positive spin on this performance. If you look at just the first Girls telecast and leave out the repeats, the ratings are nearly identical with last year.

The return of Enlightened didn’t fare so well, however. The season two premiere was just 609,000 viewers across three plays. If you want to know how Showtime’s comedy premieres fared, that story is over here.