Broadcasting and Cable is reporting a viewership of 1.3 million for the double run premiere episode of HBO's Generation Kill miniseries. It didn't even come close to matching HBO's miniseries about our second President:
The episode, entitled “Get Some,” drew just over 1 million at 9 p.m. and an additional 300,000 at 10:30 p.m., according to Nielsen figures. Those numbers typically double over the next two to three weeks, however, when HBO tallies the cumulative audience for each episode.
By comparison, HBO’s most recent miniseries, seven-part John Adams, drew 2.7 million viewers with its first episode and settled into an average 2.3 million for each Sunday premiere. The average cumulative audience was closer to 5 million.
I'm a Thomas Jefferson man myself, but it is interesting that John Adams outdrew such a significantly hyped recent HBO effort. Generation Kill got almost as much ink at the Television Critics Association meetings as Mad Men. Tony Soprano and Carrie Bradshaw please come back!
HBO has been terrrible since Sex and The City ended.
ROFL, HBO has been good only when The Wire was on.
When will Hollyweird learn? Iraq movies dont sell – particularly when they focus almost entirely on the negative. How about some balance where US troops/contractors are shown building bridges, hospitals and schools? And providing care for sick and injured Iraqi civilians? I see clips of such activities on FOX but thats about the only place. According to the other media outlets US troops are just killing machines mowing down hapless peace loving Iraqi’s.
I don’t think the comparisons w/John Adams are really fair (heavy winter/spring TV viewing versus summer). That said, I agree with Event Horizon — Iraq just doesn’t sell. I watched the opener via On Demand on Monday. I didn’t love it, but I may give it another episode.
actually, event, this was really down-the-middle. it was so much about whether war is wrong on right, it was about what the soldiers were going through and what life is like in that kind of situation.
the numbers dont shock me at all, you have to figure hbo is doing this for the emmy awards next year more than getting people to watch. positive brand reinforcement keeps them getting new customers and keeping ones. but, of course, they need to combine this with shows customers actually watch
I’d be surprised if the series’ ratings ever get much better based of the general popular mood. Out of curiosity, what sort of ratings did ROME get? Now THERE was a great series!
Diana, I was a huge Rome fan as well.
From Wikipedia:
First season
According to the Nielsen ratings system, the pilot attracted more than 8.9 million viewers over eleven broadcasts, and achieved a 9.1 household rating for Sunday primetime.
Second season
The second season premiered January 14, 2007, with the first episode attracting 7.5 million viewers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome_(TV_series)#S…
“Iraq doesn't sell.” So let me understand this: we are perfectly willing to compel our sons and daughters to murder hundreds of thousands of innocent strangers in our name, ….we just don't want to see what that looks like?
So you're saying, we Americans today are unwilling to think about the consequences of our inactions EITHER before OR after the fact?
Back in the Viet Nam era, nobody wanted to see a war about Viet Nam either….UNTIL consensus was reached that we should be ashamed of ourselves for being there, after which point we all urgently WANTED to see COMING HOME and THE DEER HUNTER and APOCALYPSE NOW–to know just what our ignorance had done, how badly we had screwed up.
Being stupid is bad enough. Being a coward about facing that is ten times worse. We OWE it to all those killed for no reason to watch honest dramas about it like GENERATION KILL….not just the staged hypocrisies shown on Fox that Event Horizon refers to below.
“Iraq doesn't sell.” So let me understand this: we are perfectly willing to compel our sons and daughters to murder hundreds of thousands of innocent strangers in our name, ….we just don't want to see what that looks like?
So you're saying, we Americans today are unwilling to think about the consequences of our inactions EITHER before OR after the fact?
Back in the Viet Nam era, nobody wanted to see a war about Viet Nam either….UNTIL consensus was reached that we should be ashamed of ourselves for being there, after which point we all urgently WANTED to see COMING HOME and THE DEER HUNTER and APOCALYPSE NOW–to know just what our ignorance had done, how badly we had screwed up.
Being stupid is bad enough. Being a coward about facing that is ten times worse. We OWE it to all those killed for no reason to watch honest dramas about it like GENERATION KILL….not just the staged hypocrisies shown on Fox that Event Horizon refers to below.