Disclaimer: The show has already been renewed for a second season, so no hand wringing over the ratings is necessary!
Update: (hat tip to James Hibberd) Starz actually reports **lower** numbers, 535K on Starz and another 460,000 on Encore. I'm not sure what's up with the discrepancy in numbers; maybe Starz numbers are Live only rather than Live+SD, or it's something to do with it being longer than an hour either way it's a record for an original scripted premiere on Starz.
Update 2, January 26: The original numbers posted were correct. Starz issued a press release today on Fridays numbers with additional information on the airings over the weekend.
Also as noted in the comments, Spartacus: Blood and Sand had some early online (free) distribution of the premiere, so people had a chance to see it before it aired. Next week's numbers will be more telling.
I don't really have enough historical data for shows on Starz to handicap the premiere of Spartacus: Blood and Sand on Starz that averaged .659 million viewers and a 0.3 adults 18-49 rating. A simulcast on Encore drew an additional .578 million so that's a total of 1.237 million. If that was all on Starz I'd say that was pretty good.
Even just the .659 million might look good after a Crash season two finale that scored a 0.0 adults 18-49 rating and 94,000 viewers!
We'll have to see what the numbers look like when its not simulcast on Encore.
numbers via @TravisYanan
It was seriously stupid.
That was the single biggest piece of crap I have ever seen on television.
Yes, including Jersey Shore.
It was entertaining. Basically it’s 300 the series with even more sex and CG blood.
Wow… 0.0 lol. I guess 0.3 is a hit then
It also premiered on Netflix Instant watch.
i hated it cartoonish slow motion ketchup effects + it was practically a porno + awful writing
Complete drivel, though it is nice to know they had really hot women who liked to get naked back in Roman times though. I really had to check to see whether I was watching Starz or Cinemax After Dark.
Very good for Spartacus considering that it airs on a Friday plus it was against Caprica and I don’t know how subscribers Starz has but it can’t be as high as HBO or even Showtime.
Didn’t Dexter get figures like this in its first season?
That’s pretty darn good, considering the channel is only in 20-ish million homes to begin with…
Robert,
I’m assuming you have the subscriber totals for HBO, Showtime and Starz?
HBO = Around 38 million
Starz = 17.7 million
Showtime = 13 million
I dunno about that, Samuel.
Here are the Nielsen coverage estimates as of December
HBO: 31.9 million
Showtime: 22.5 million
Starz: 21.9 million
Like ‘Caprica’, ‘Spartacus: Blood and Sand’ also had quite a wide pre-premiere distribution via various on-line distributors, so its first episode numbers need to be asterisked. As with ‘Caprica’, the true Nielsen patterns will be more accurately established with the second episode.
While in no way similar to the classic feature by Mr. Stanley Kubrick, I was impressed enough with ‘Spartacus: Blood and Sand’ to put it on season pass. Hopefully, it will be a hit for STARZ and join their library of quality, buzzworthy series: ‘Crash’, ‘Party Down’, ‘Head Case’.
I also cannot wait to see what Mr. Chris Albrecht has percolating in his creative pipeline.
Wow,
had no clue Showtime and Starz were nearly equal in subscribers.
Andrea, I’m not sure exactly when the changes with cable distribution for movies happened, but Showtime’s movie selection is usually so poor that the only reason to subscribe to it at this point is for its original series. Starz is the premiere movie channel on cable now; even better than HBO (though HBO at least still gets the Warner Bros films).
haha I love when ppl spit off ‘facts’ and then Rob or Bill comes through like “I’m not sure about that….here’s the official facts”
Robert,
I had no clue about that either. I always thought Starz was a fledgling channel.
I wonder when/if Cinemax will ever try to get into the game (or if it does well enough with its softcore brand.)
Even just the .659 million might look good after a Crash season two finale that scored a 0.0 adults 18-49 rating and 94,000 viewers!
Woah that was so low, did TVBTN write something about that Crash season 2 ratings? I may have missed it.
Now that it was mentioned that Starz subscribers are on par with Showtime for me this ratings are really low but as someone mentioned it was already seen through free previews, so let’s see for the second episode.
Fella, there are some discrepancies with the numbers Nielsen reports and the numbers these networks sometimes self report. This happens for a variety of reasons, including if you cancel cable and switch to satellite, in one month you might technically be counted as 2 subscribers by the networks. Here, I’m usually more inclined to use Nielsen’s estimate of reach than self-reported numbers, and it’s not like Nielsen doesn’t talk to these networks when making its estimates.
Forg, I think the discussion happened in the comments of one of the weekly cable posts last month, though more recently I did do a post on “when will Starz cancel CRASH?”
My guess at this point is is they won’t issue a press release about it, but it just won’t appear on the schedule and ultimately the actors involved or someone at the networks will say something about it. We’ll see.