“Girls” is often described as the definitive Millennial show, so perhaps it’s no surprise that the majority of the second season’s viewership has come not during the show’s first airing on HBO but from other, largely new media sources.

“Girls” wrapped up its season Sunday night with just 632,000 viewers for the 9 p.m. episode, according to Nielsen.

To put that in perspective, more people watched a rerun of “Gunsmoke” on TVLand last Friday afternoon than the “Girls” finale. It was down 37 percent from the first-season ender, which averaged 1 million.

But that’s just for the show’s first run on HBO.

When you factor in all the other devices where “Girls” is being watched, it becomes clear why the show generates so much buzz, and why HBO already gave it a third-season pickup.

In total, season two averaged 4.6 million gross viewers across all HBO platforms, including DVR. Only about 15 percent of that came from first-run episodes.

Some 27 percent of “Girls” viewership comes on HBO On Demand or HBO Go, the network’s online service, more than any other program on the pay cable network.

Encores that run on the network also contribute to that total. On Sunday night, an additional 500,000 viewers caught reruns of “Girls” after it originally aired.

It’s simply another reminder that the younger generation that comprises most of “Girls’” audience looks at television in an entirely different way than their elders.

They don’t feel like they have to tune into the first airing of “Girls,” which focuses on a foursome of twentysomething women, to stay current with the show.

They’d rather adjust the program to their own personal viewing schedule, by time shifting it or watching it on-demand via cable, satellite or online.

It’s the sort of thing Millennials have come to expect from all their media, whether they’re time-shifting a cable show or listening to a podcast of a radio show that aired much earlier in the day. Read morehttp://www.medialifemagazine.com/girls-ratings-fall-but-no-worries/