Fans are already starting to miss their favorite serial killer, as DEXTER had the best launch of its run with last night’s Season 8 premiere. The show had 2.5M viewers, up 100,000 from Season 7’s premiere. (Demo numbers weren’t released, but should end up at around a 1.4 in 18-49s–which, if true, would mean it was only beaten by Big Brother on the broadcast networks last night, despite being available in only 1/3 of US households.) Dexter added an additional 700K viewers with its 11PM rebroadcast.
Those numbers propelled RAY DONOVAN to the biggest series premiere numbers in Showtime’s history, with 1.35M viewers at 10PM. That’s considerably higher than the 1.1M who watched the premiere of Homeland 2 seasons ago (although below the Homeland Season 2 premiere). If Ray‘s demos break down like Dexter‘s, that could mean a 0.8 in 18-49s. Showtime also notes that over 800,000 subscribers had already watched the pilot via advance on-demand and online availability, and an additional 850,000 viewers tuned in for the midnight rebroadcast.
Meanwhile, over at Lifetime, Saturday’s TV-movie bio ANNA NICOLE had 3.3M total viewers, and a 1.1 in the 18-49 demo. Among Lifetime’s tabloid movies, that’s better than the 3.1M/1.0 it scored with its recent Jodi Arias movie, about even with the Casey Anthony opus, and a bit below the super-hyped appearance of Lindsay Lohan as Elizabeth Taylor.
Related Posts
-
THE SKED Sunday Cable Ratings Scorecard
HBO: 18-49 numbers for Sunday’s debuts were in line with the preliminary ratings yesterday, as TRUE DETECTIVE launched with 1.0, and the two episodes of GIRLS were at 0.6/0.5. SHOWTIME: The Season 3 premiere of SHAMELESS was at 0.9, down from 1.1 for last year’s debut. HOUSE OF LIES…
-
THE SKED: Cable Ratings August 16-22
>A fairly typical summer week on cable. Jersey Shore and True Blood land on top of the chart, while ESPN’s Monday Night Football (preseason) had a good showing. Keeping Up with the Kardashians (featuring the taste and elegance of a wedding that only a cable reality series can muster) was…
-
The Sked: Cable Ratings November 15-21
>This past week in cable, ESPN’s Monday Night Football drifted down to a 4.9 rating with Adults 18-49, still the highest-rated cable program by far. NFL Network’s Thursday Night Football rose to a 2.9 rating.AMC’s Walking Dead continues to soften but remains the top-rated scripted series on cable. About one…
-
-
About the Author
Mitch Salem
MITCH SALEM has worked on the business side of the entertainment industry for 20 years, as a senior business affairs executive and attorney for such companies as NBC, ABC, USA, Syfy, Bravo, and BermanBraun Productions, and before that, at the NY law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges. During all that, he has more or less constantly been going to the movies and watching TV, and writing about both since the 1980s. His film reviews also currently appear on screened.com and the-burg.com. In addition, he is co-writer of an episode of the television series "Felicity."
More articles by
Mitch Salem »
