‘Sopranos’ opening audience shrinks

Viewers didn’t flock to Sunday’s “Sopranos” premiere the way they have in the past, but HBO got some of its best ratings ever for “Entourage.”

The first of the final nine episodes of the acclaimed mob drama drew an audience of 7.7 million people Sunday night, making it the most-watched show on cable last week by a fairly wide margin.

However, that figure is a good deal smaller than the 9.5 million who watched the show’s sixth-season premiere in March 2006.

The decline continues a downward trend for the show, which hit a high mark of 13 million-plus viewers for the season four premiere in September 2002, then dipped to 12.1 million for the start of season five in March 2004.

But having “The Sopranos” as a lead-in helped “Entourage” to its biggest premiere audience ever.

Some 3.8 million people hung around to watch the Hollywood comedy’s return – an improvement of about a million viewers over last June’s previous best.