New series Outlander debuted strongly Saturday night on Starz to a combined 3.7 million viewers.
The series, based on Diana Gabaldon's 1991 book, drew 720,000 viewers for the initial telecast, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The rest of the viewers checked out the series through encore episodes and across other platforms.
The nearly 4 million viewers is a new multiplatform best for the network and the series also drew in a nearly equal viewing audience between men and women. Though the romance drama has a more female angle, 45 percent of those who checked out the series are in the key 18-49 demographic.
Ahead of the Aug. 9 premiere, Starz released the first episode through various platforms, including on-demand and the Internet. A total of 897,000 viewers checked out the series when the network made it available on Aug. 2.
The network hoped an aggressive early launch of the series would draw in viewers with subscriptions and it clearly paid off. The first series will air in two halves, with the first eight episodes airing now and the rest dropping early in 2015.
Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan star in Outlander, which was adapted by Ronald D. Moore, who worked on Battlestar Galactica.
image of Caitriona Balfe courtesy of Sol Jones/INFphoto.com