'Homeland' season finale hunts down ratings record for Showtime

By Scott Collins

Dec. 17, 2012 12 AM PT

The critics may have harshed on “Homeland’s” second season, but viewers can’t seem to get enough of Carrie Mathison’s antics.

Sunday’s season finale of Showtime’s terrorism thriller - with Claire Danes as troubled CIA agent Carrie Mathison - reached its best ratings so far, with the 10 p.m. premiere averaging 2.3 million total viewers, according to Nielsen.

That was a 35% increase over the Season 1 finale last December.

With numbers from a later encore thrown in, “Homeland” delivered a total of 2.7 million viewers for the night.

“Homeland” was a critics’ favorite last year, but some of the bloom seems to have faded with critics. The website BuzzFeed called Season 2 “an implausible, meandering mess.”

Meanwhile, the seventh season finale of “Dexter” at 9 p.m. drew 2.8 million viewers, with 3.4 million viewers for the night overall - Showtime’s best-ever numbers for an original series.

What did you think of the just-wrapped seasons for “Homeland” and “Dexter”?

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“Homeland” season 1 finale set new-series record for Showtime

Twitter: @scottcollinsLAT