Fox’s “Wayward Pines” had a tough task when it bowed last week — airing opposite season finales on the competition and a big NBA playoff game — but plenty of viewers caught up with the premiere episode of the event series over the weekend.
According to Nielsen’s “live plus-3″ estimates, which include three days’ worth of time-shifted viewing, “Wayward Pines” averaged a 1.9 rating in adults 18-49, a 90% jump over its same-night average (1.0). The percentage gain is the largest for any series debut on ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox or CW this season.
For the week, that put it ahead of at least four series on the Big Four network — “Stalker,” “Undateable,” “CSI: Cyber” and “American Crime” — that had outdrawn it in the 18-49 demo in same-night ratings.
In total viewers, “Wayward Pines” grew 65% — from 3.76 million to 6.2 million.
The 10-episode series stars Matt Dillon as a Secret Service agent on a mission to find two missing federal agents in the bucolic town of Wayward Pines, Idaho. In addition to Dillon, the cast includes Melissa Leo, Terrence Howard (of the net’s megahit “Empire”), Carla Gugino, Shannyn Sossamon, Toby Jones, Reed Diamond, Tim Griffin, Charlie Tahan, Juliette Lewis and and Hope Davis.
“Wayward Pines” bowed last Thursday as part of a simultaneous launch in more than 125 countries, making it the world’s largest-ever day-and-date launch for a scripted series. The series from M. Night Shyamalan stars Matt Dillon as a Secret Service agent on a mission to find two missing federal agents in the bucolic town of Wayward Pines, Idaho.
Fox said the premiere episode has been seen by 1.2 million viewers across the 24 markets for which data were available, with especially strong results in Australia (bigger than the most recent season premiere of “The Walking Dead”), Norway (best ever series premiere on Fox Norway) and Chile (dominating its timeslot among pay TV viewers 18-49).
In the U.S., it had especially tough competition in the form of season finales of ABC’s “Scandal” and NBC’s “The Blacklist” as well as the most-watched primetime NBA playoff game to date this year (Rockets-Clippers on ESPN).
