'Mr. Robot' has some bad news for its ratings in season 2

The season-two return for "Mr. Robot" banked the hacker drama's smallest audience of the show's run.

According to Nielsen, the USA Network show's two-hour premiere was watched by just 1.04 million total viewers on Wednesday. That's the show's smallest viewing audience ever and about 200,000 viewers less than its series premiere last summer.

In the demographic most important to advertisers, adults between the ages of 18 and 49 years old, the second-season premiere earned a 0.43 rating. That's tied with last season's fourth episode for the second-lowest rating of its run.

To give the premiere's numbers some context, season one averaged 1.39 million viewers and a 0.48 rating in the 18-49 demographic.

"Mr. Robot" did have some tough competition on Wednesday night with ABC's broadcast of The Espy Awards. Plus, USA Network may have cannibalized some of the show's live audience by leaking the first hour of the premiere online for a few hours on Sunday night.

The ratings fall had some cushioning this week with the good news that "Mr. Robot" nabbed USA's first Emmy nomination for a series, and a lead actor nom for its star, Rami Malek. So all is not lost.