Viewership for the HBO series “Veep” has skyrocketed this week as fans of the show and new viewers flocked to their televisions to admire life imitating art after Vice President Kamala Harris announced her campaign for president.
Harris, who is expected to take the Democratic nominee at the Democratic National Convention next month, announced that she intended to “earn and win” the spot on the ballot on Sunday, sparking a jump in viewership of the Emmy Award-winning series.
“Veep,” which depicts a fictional storyline quite similar to Harris’s current situation, saw streaming viewership for Season 1 of the series jump more than 350% on Monday, according to Luminate, an entertainment data company that tracks streaming and viewership.
Luminate shared that viewers watched 2.2 million minutes of the series on Monday, compared to the day prior, when it garnered 486,000 viewing minutes.
The show, which aired in 2012 and wrapped in 2019, was led by comedy icon and Emmy-Award-winning actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
In the show, Louis-Dreyfus plays the fictional character US Senator Selina Meyer, who runs for president, loses the nomination, and settles for becoming vice president.
In the second season, her boss resigns from his position, moving Meyer into the Oval Office.
The situation is similar to the one Harris found herself in on Sunday, when President Joe Biden announced that he would no longer seek reelection, just 105 days from Election Day.
The creator of the show, Armando Iannucci, took to social media on Monday, responding to a post about the similarities, saying, “Don’t forget we made all that up, though.”
The show isn’t the only form of media to receive a pop in recent weeks, as the New York Times Best Selling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” also saw a boost in sales. The memoir was written in 2016 by Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), former President Trump’s pick for VP.
Laminate shared that a film adaptation of the book, directed by Ron Howard, also saw a viewership surge.