Sydney Sweeney, in her regular fashion, is leaving the “Euphoria” noise in the dust as the numbers rise.
The actress’ return to the screen as Cassie Howard on the famous HBO series has been welcomed with sky-high ratings despite huge backlash against her character’s career path in the series third season.
Sydney Sweeney’s performance on the second season of the critically acclaimed show landed her a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2022.
The actress is earning her bragging rights as a serious contender for one of Hollywood’s best talents following the impressive ratings that have followed the second episode of the HBO show. The second episode has hit 5 million viewers across HBO and HBO Max in its first three days, tallying with the number of viewership recorded for the premiere episode. Talk about consistency!
According to Warner Bros. Discovery, the second episode in the United States alone performed better than the second episode of the previous season by nearly 35%. The second episode of season 2 peaked at 6.4 million viewers in three days, and it made stars like Sweeney, Jacob Elordi, Alexa Damie, Maude Apatow, Hunter Schafer, and Zendaya bigger household names.
The first episode of the current season has now taken a quantum leap from its first three-day viewership of 8.5 million to over 12.3 million viewers in the U.S. Variety reported that the global total has also exceeded 20 million viewers, which represents a 68% jump on the global total recorded for the season 2 premiere within three days.
The Model’s Co-Star Criticized Her Character For Taking A Shocking Career Turn
Sweeney’s on-screen character, Cassie, was off to a very dramatic start on the third season of the show, and her co-star, Chloe Cherry, who plays Faye Valentine, had things to say about the Cassie character development. As shared by The Blast, Cherry commented on Cassie becoming an OnlyFans content creator on the show, noting that it felt unbelievable that someone from a privileged background like Cassie would take that route.
Cassie was portrayed as someone from a relatively stable, suburban background on the show, with reasonable economic and social privilege compared to other characters on the show. Sweeney’s character has particularly pushed boundaries of explicit scenes on the show even further this season.
Cherry discussed that the economy is horrible, and it has pushed people into the adult content creation industry in real life. While she has had a bit of experience in the adult film industry before transitioning to mainstream acting, Cherry still believes Cassie’s privileged background sharply contrasted the path she chose in the series.
Sydney Sweeney’s Suggestive Scenes On ‘Euphoria’ Had Megyn Kelly Livid
Female characters on the show’s third season have kept the trend table working all week due to their highly sexualized content, especially a scene where Cassie unleashed an infantile roleplay move. The scene became one of the most talked about for the season, drawing commentaries from media personality Kelly.
Kelly described the scene as the character and creators of the show giving infancy an unnecessary undertone, stating, “She’s dressed as a baby… she’s sucking on a binkie… and her legs are completely spread. This is sexualizing infancy.” Last year, the actress was in the news for posing with guests at her mother’s birthday party while wearing themed hats and shirts aligning with a certain political party.
She broke her silence on the backlash, insisting that she had no control over what people would wear to the party and how people online would process it. She urged people online to stop attaching unnecessary political undertones to such a milestone ceremony, insisting that their assumptions do not directly translate to the intention of attendees at the event.
The 28-Year-Old Raved About The Extent Of Her Character’s Desperation On The Show
The media personality was beyond excited to show what stuff she was made of on the show’s third season before it was released. As shared by The Blast, she described her character as a crazy type who would go to the ends of the earth to be famous this season, while making questionable decisions and interesting choices.
Sweeney has previously addressed the issue of appearing in raunchy scenes on the series, stressing that she does not have any problems playing such roles, as it is also an outlet for her to condemn the stigma against actresses who do nude scenes. “Euphoria” has also been poorly reviewed by critics like the New York Post, who claimed the storyline was poorly written, sacrificing depth for mundane, absurd scenes.
It also emerged as the lowest-rated season of the series on Rotten Tomatoes, sitting at 40%, which is about half the rating of seasons one and two. Another critic from IndieWire, Ben Travers, declared that “Euphoria” in its final season has grown old instead of growing up because characters have refused to change, nor have they been motivated to influence their viewers to also change.
Sydney Sweeney Did Not Get A Win For ‘Devil Wears Prada 2’
The media personality was reportedly a part of the film set to hit the theatres on May 1, 2026, featuring alongside Emily Blunt at her Dior office as Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, and Stanley Tucci arrive to ask for her help.
Unfortunately, Sweeney could not appear as herself in the three-minute-long scene because it was removed. An insider claimed that the producers of the show felt her cameo did not work structurally with the rest of the show, leading to a creative decision to leave her out of the show.
Sam Levinson explained his reason for the trajectory of Cassie’s character, explaining that the entire idea was to find another layer of absurdity that the show is able to tie into so that viewers are not too inside a make-believe world.
Will the backlash ease up for Sydney Sweeney and “Euphoria” soon?