SPARTACUS: WAR OF THE DAMNED Season Premiere Draws Huge Ratings for Starz

The season premiere episode of "Spartacus: War of the Damned" debuted on Starz Friday, January 25th and produced the second highest ratings performance (5.5 gross ratings point/GRP) ever on a Friday night for a Starz Original series premiere.

The Friday 5.5 GRP number from Starz subscribers trails only the 2011 Spartacus prequel, "Spartacus: Gods of the Arena (6.3)," but was well ahead of "Spartacus: Blood and Sand" (3.7) and "Spartacus: Vengeance" (4.7).

The opening "Spartacus: War of the Damned" weekend performance audience generated more than 2.5 million P2+ viewers for the premiere episode telecasts January 25-27. (**Late reporting of an additional Sunday overnight/early morning airing was not available at time of release).

Friday night airings, including the debut at 9PM et/pt (930,000), and subsequent 10PM (469,000) and 11PM (443,000) re-airings, generated about 1.84 million Live+SD, P2+ viewers.

The weekend performance was in line with the 2.7 million Live+SD P2+ viewers that viewed the season finale to "Spartacus: Vengeance" during its premiere weekend this past April. "Spartacus: Vengeance," averaged more than 6 million viewers across multi-platform viewing, including DVR and on-demand.

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