The second-season premiere of E!’s Playmate reality series “The Girls Next Door” delivered a 59 increase in household viewership compared with the debut season and was the highest-rated telecast on the network since 2003 among households, excluding red carpet events.

The episode was seen by 1.7 million viewers (1 million adults 18 to 49), which is several times higher than the channel’s third-quarter prime-time average last year. The series follows Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner and his girlfriends Holly, Bridget and Kendra.