Comments on: Updated: "Spartacus: Blood and Sand" premiere draws 661,000 on Starz

By: Ya_Coont

Ya_Coont — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 04:09:54 +0000

I enjoyed how they said cunt so liberally, pretty hilarious.

By: Jaya

Jaya — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 13:58:03 +0000

I am totally ‘thumbs up’ for this show. BRAVO!!

By: Val Belfiglio

Val Belfiglio — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 17:34:14 +0000

The series captures the spirit of ancient Rome in a way that is unique. It reminds me of the way “Gone with the Wind” captures the spirit of the Old South.

By: Azreal71

Azreal71 — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 22:30:13 +0000

You all will need to remember that HBO has some new original series coming out soon by the names of: The Pacific, Treme, Boardwalk Empire and a little known series by the name of True Blood, so HBO numbers speak for themselves, Pacific and Treme both have MAJOR names backing them and MAJOR history backing those names relative to HBO before i.e. The Pacific: Hanks,Spielberg. Treme: creators of The Wire,The Corner, So until Starz,Showtime,Ciniflesh can come out with programming on par with the Home Box Office, they must accept their roles as little brothers and sisters! lol!

By: CARMELHOTTIE

CARMELHOTTIE — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:24:36 +0000

I LOVE IT!!!!!!! DAM THAT WHITE BOY IS FINE AS HELL AND I DONT LOOK AT WHITE BOYS LIKE THAT. CANT WAIT TILL NEXT WEEK FOR THE NEW ONE.

By: izikavazo

izikavazo — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:01:43 +0000

It was pretty bad, I was surprised at how much I disliked it. But apparently it gets better in the 3rd and 4th episodes (after it was turned into a series rather than a miniseries).

By: Rodney J.

Rodney J. — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 18:49:59 +0000

If this is the Starz brand image, I have little hope for Starz. This show was absolutely horrible. I had no problem with the nudity, except for the fact that the sex scenes didn’t flow with the story. The blood was cartoonish and silly. Not in a cool ’300′ way, just in a lame, soft-core action porno way. I really felt like I was watching a lame soft-core porno. I’ll stick to better shows on HBO and Showtime and stick with the internet for pornos.

By: dave

dave — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:50:45 +0000

But ratings for a show like this don’t really matter. What matters is what this show does to build Starz brand image, and attract subscribers. Starz probably could have put on a number of shows that more people would have watched, but they need shows that people not only want to watch, but would be willing to pay for. Hence all the blood and nudity.

By: Doug

Doug — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:07:45 +0000

Blech. Worst show I’ve seen in years. We tuned out after 20 minutes. It’s not the nudity or blood that got to me, but instead the awful, awful dialog. Just putrid.

By: Darryl

Darryl — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:38:41 +0000

Show was dam good, could have went up against HBO’s Rome and probly won. This show will defenately be around for another season. This has a 300 and Gladitor with a touch of the Matrix. This show has my Attention.

By: Max Sleven

Max Sleven — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:55:08 +0000

You must be crazy, or a woman, if you don’t like this show. It’s a cross between 300 and Gladiator + boobs! I already saw the second episode online, and you actually get to see Xena naked! How many years have i waited for that one?! Two thumbs up!

By: ryan

ryan — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:52:55 +0000

what was with the f-bombs being dropped? didnt they even know the F-bomb back in that time?

By: Dee

Dee — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 07:56:34 +0000

I like Crash, Party Down an Spartacus. I hope Crash doesnt get cancelled. Crash had 94,000 viewers(thats really low), but Party Down’s ratings were much lower than Cradh’s but that show still got renewed for season 2.

By: F.

F. — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 07:42:55 +0000

SPARTACUS has great bodies, some fun 300 CGI stuff, neato fight scenes and some fun costumes. It could probably be watched with the volume off – but so could football and that’s an entirely fun watch too.

By: Samuel

Samuel — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:59:20 +0000

In fact, the two first episodes were leaked online before the premiere. Son I guess a bunch of people took a look at it.

And yes, the second episode is better than the first one

By: Tks

Tks — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:34:02 +0000

I liked the sex and nudity I would have liked the gore but it was a bit cartoonish. I’ll tune in again. But never compair this to Rome or 300. A completly different league.

By: forg

forg — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:26:34 +0000

XENA is on this show? Woah

By: Mel

Mel — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:22:26 +0000

“Kill them all!” I thought it was interesting, I’ll tune in a few more times. I agree that the dialog was a bit stilted, but I think they were trying to stylize it — at least I hope they were because otherwise – oh my.

By: tvmegafan

tvmegafan — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:01:34 +0000

I loved it. The SEX Parts where raw and beautiful hot sexy and amazing. anyone who says they didnt enjoy those is just a closeminded plain boring sack of mush. The show was good, I will keep watching it, I watched it on my Netflix instant watch, it the most amazing thing ever created, well since the DVR.

By: mikey

mikey — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 04:36:15 +0000

I’ve seen the second episode and can confirm that it is way better. Less of the overdone blood and silly dialougue, and the story really starts picking up. Oh and Lucy Lawless’ boobs…which was nice.

By: Sly

Sly — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 04:15:07 +0000

Actually, aside from some of the silly dialogue (“keep me close to your thighs”, for example) I rather enjoyed Spartacus. They’ve got good unlikeable villains, scheming and ambitious women, an ancient setting, and not-bad fight scenes. Could do with a little less blood. Spartacus blood-sprayed about a gallon of blood from the back of his head when hit by the gladiator with the axe. He should have bled to death after that one. But overall, it’s good entertainment – good enough for me to want to see the next installment.

By: Jimmy

Jimmy — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 03:51:21 +0000

The cartoonish blood spatter got old quick and personally I can take only so much nudity before it gets real boring real quick, but there was enough potential here that I’m going to tune in a couple times.

By: Anthony

Anthony — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 03:22:42 +0000

Yes it pales in comparison to Rome but I liked a great deal of it. It kept me entertained and the hot naked chicks didn’t hurt much either. I hear the 2nd episode is way better so we will see.

By: Brian Fahrlander

Brian Fahrlander — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 02:51:34 +0000

Sounds like this show took place when it was determined the sexiest farm animals in all humanity: “Brown Chicken, Brown Cow!”

(Sing it; it’s an audible…and one of the funniest things my daughter has brought home in a while.)

Sounds like another “Ah! Here’s a reason to put on all that stuff Mom didn’t want me to see!” shows. There are just too many GOOD shows for me to waste my time, aye?

By: Larry

Larry — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 02:33:50 +0000

My god that was a horrible pilot,300 wanna be, terrible dialogue,and the only one that actually act is John H.It blows.Starz can order a second season because they have got nothing to lose, but they have lost one viewer cause i’m gone…

By: Jimmy McAwesome

Jimmy McAwesome — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 02:05:03 +0000

i’m pretty confident that the first couple showtime shows didnt perform much more than under 1 million

By: Samuel

Samuel — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 01:44:31 +0000

Well anyway it’s a record for Starz, still fairly low compare to most of Showtime shows.

By: Jon

Jon — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 01:43:13 +0000

Showtime has had huge growths in subscribers thanks to its original series, whereas HBO has remained relativly flat. From an CNN article from 2005, HBO had 28m while Showtime had 13m so the gap has narrowed.

I wonder how Epix is doing as that was created due to Showtime not renewing their contract with Paramount, MGM and Lionsgate.

By: forg

forg — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 01:36:38 +0000

Robert, I now remember commenting on CRASH ratings last month on the weekly post although it was for regular episodes not the season 2 finale. I remember reading tweets from TCA press tour that Starz had no statement on CRASH’s renewal when asked by the writers so I bet silence = cancellation.

By: Samuel

Samuel — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 01:33:02 +0000

Oh, I got my info from Wikipedia, so I’ll trust Nielsen numbers of those of Wikipedia!

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 01:30:28 +0000

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.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 01:28:48 +0000

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.

By: forg

forg — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 01:26:37 +0000

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.

By: Andrea

Andrea — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 01:24:41 +0000

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.)

By: Fella

Fella — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 01:22:31 +0000

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”

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 01:18:53 +0000

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).

By: Andrea

Andrea — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 01:15:45 +0000

Wow,

had no clue Showtime and Starz were nearly equal in subscribers.

By: DuMont

DuMont — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 01:00:23 +0000

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.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:45:14 +0000

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

By: Samuel

Samuel — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:41:10 +0000

HBO = Around 38 million
Starz = 17.7 million
Showtime = 13 million

By: Andrea

Andrea — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:15:13 +0000

Robert,

I’m assuming you have the subscriber totals for HBO, Showtime and Starz?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 23:35:00 +0000

That’s pretty darn good, considering the channel is only in 20-ish million homes to begin with…

By: Jon

Jon — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 23:32:48 +0000

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?

By: Jim

Jim — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 23:30:23 +0000

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.

By: Tar

Tar — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 23:25:04 +0000

i hated it cartoonish slow motion ketchup effects + it was practically a porno + awful writing

By: abc?

abc? — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 23:20:05 +0000

It also premiered on Netflix Instant watch.

By: Samuel

Samuel — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 23:15:36 +0000

Wow… 0.0 lol. I guess 0.3 is a hit then

By: Don J

Don J — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 23:15:16 +0000

It was entertaining. Basically it’s 300 the series with even more sex and CG blood.

By: Chmarin

Chmarin — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 23:06:54 +0000

That was the single biggest piece of crap I have ever seen on television.

Yes, including Jersey Shore.

By: Andy

Andy — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 23:05:24 +0000

It was seriously stupid.