Generation Kill Opener 'Gets Some' for HBO
HBO’s Iraq war miniseries draws 1.3M viewers in double-run debut.
By B&C Staff -- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/16/2008 1:29:00 PM
Generation Kill, HBO’s new seven-hour miniseries about the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, hit the ground running Sunday night, drawing an estimated 1.3 million viewers in back-to-back airings of its first installment.
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.
Adapted from Rolling Stone journalist Evan Wright’s Iraq war diary and produced by David Simon, creator of HBO’s The Wire, Generation Kill faces the challenge of drawing an audience that has largely tuned out Hollywood treatments of the war.
The next installment premieres Sunday, July 20 at 9 p.m. (EST).
