DEXTER KILLS IN SEASON FINALE

While an audience of 2.5 million for a TV show would be regarded as disastrous in the broadcasting world, in the cable world it can represent a huge success. That’s the number of people who tuned in for the season finale of Showtime’s Dexter at 9:00 p.m. on Sunday, but Showtime, the No., 2 pay-TV cable network behind HBO, pointed out that the initial airing does not tell the whole story, since audiences have multiple opportunities to see its programs. At 11:00 p.m. that same night, Dexter drew another 401,000 viewers, and by the time the accumulated audience figures are tallied for all of the repeats plus DVR playback, Showtime figures that a record 6 million viewers will have watched the show. It said that Dexter averaged 5 million viewers per week this season, a record for the series, which just concluded its fifth season.