‘Outlander’ Draws 1.4 Million Viewers in Premiere

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Starz drew record audiences for Saturday night's return of original series Outlander, the network said Tuesday.

The second season premiere on April 9 averaged 1.46 million viewers (Live+same day), besting the previous series premiere record of 1.43 million generated by the second season debut of Power, said network officials.

READ MORE: CEO Chris Albrecht has Starz reaching for more (subs. required). 

Saturday’s premiere also more than doubled the 721,000 viewers Outlander’s series premiere episode averaged in August 2014.

With multiple weekend re-airings included (Live +SD) as well as early on-demand/online viewing,  the episode averaged 2.68 million viewers, said network officials. 

Freshman scripted drama series The Girlfriend Experience also debuted well for Starz, averaging 363,000 viewers in its Sunday night premiere, but generating nearly 1.5 million viewers with same-day repeats are factored in, said network officials. Prior to the premiere Starz launched all eight episodes of the series on demand for binge-viewing.

R. Thomas Umstead
R. Thomas Umstead

R. Thomas Umstead serves as senior content producer, programming for Multichannel News, Broadcasting + Cable and Next TV. During his more than 30-year career as a print and online journalist, Umstead has written articles on a variety of subjects ranging from TV technology, marketing and sports production to content distribution and development. He has provided expert commentary on television issues and trends for such TV, print, radio and streaming outlets as Fox News, CNBC, the Today show, USA Today, The New York Times and National Public Radio. Umstead has also filmed, produced and edited more than 100 original video interviews, profiles and news reports featuring key cable television executives as well as entertainers and celebrity personalities.