'Black Sails' Tallies Bounty of Starz Viewership Records

By Jessika Walsten
( Broadcasting & Cable )
published

The premiere of Starz’s pirate series captured a treasure trove of Nielsen booty, yielding some 3.5 million viewers across various platforms.

Black Sails, a prequel to Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic Treasure Island, became the most widely watched original series debut in the premium channel’s history, following its opening weekend on Saturday, Jan. 25.

Bowing on Jan. 25 at 9 p.m. on Starz and flanked by a bounty of encores on its linear networks, Black Sails cast anchor with more than 2.6 million viewers, according to Nielsen live+same-day figures. The performance surpassed The White Queen, making Black Sails the biggest Starz series premiere weekend ever.

Gauged on a live+same-day basis, Black Sails’ Saturday telecasts, including 850,000 for the aforementioned linear debut, tallied 1.7 million total viewers, the most ever for Starz new series premiere night.

Go to Multichannel.com for the full story.

Jessika Walsten
Jessika Walsten

Jessika is an analyst for TVREV and Fabric Media. She previously served in various roles at Broadcasting + Cable, Multichannel News and NextTV, working with the brands since 2013. A graduate of USC Annenberg, Jessika has edited and reported on a variety of subjects in the media and entertainment space, including profiles on industry leaders and breaking news.