‘Spark of Rebellion’ did pretty good, and now the official Rebels premiere has given Disney XD their best numbers ever for an animated series.
Disney: Rebels premiere movie pulls 6.5M viewers worldwide
Star Wars Rebels debuted to 6.5 million viewers worldwide, a Disney press release says today. The Friday debut on the Disney Channel has 2.7M viewers and did 52% higher than average in the “target demographic.” (Boys 6-11, because of course.) ‘Spark of Rebellion’ airs tonight on the show’s permanent home, Disney XD.
Meanwhile, the first official episode, ‘Droids in Distress,’ is free on iTunes right now. And StarWars.com has posted the second part of their interview with executive producer Simon Kinberg.
And, per New York Times reporter Brooks Barnes, it looks like ‘Spark of Rebellion’ will air on ABC on Sunday, October 26 with an additional Darth Vader scene.
The Clone Wars audience continues to grow
Turner has released its recent viewership for its different cable channels, including Cartoon Network, and no surprise that The Clone Wars continues to grow in its audience.
Compared to this time last year, the show, TCW has increased its hold of kids 6-11 by 34%, but has really grown in the 9-14 age range, by 83%. No word on how many adults are also watching, although I do feel the urge to buy more Nerf and Lego toys while eating Fruity Pebbles. Last week’s overall viewership according to other reports is 1.8 million viewers, beating out other Friday night cable fare as Merlin, The Soup, and Say Yes to the Dress, tying one ESPN NBA game broadcast but losing to two Disney channel shows and a later NBA game.
Clone Wars goes Notorious with ‘Senate Spy’ tonight!
Tonight’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars episode may not be battle heavy, but will show the war from a different point of view: politics, espionage, and romance (?) as Padme goes undercover to investigate a senator who’s also an old love interest. Catherine Taber shares with starwars.com on Padmé’s allegiances to the Republic and to her husband, and on her Alfred Hitchcock homework from Dave Filoni.
Newsarama puts up the conclusion of their Dave Filoni interview about season 2 and making the show. In brief: More independent episodes, a broader view of the war, more clone-centric episodes, no Yoda-centric episodes, Corey Burton does awesome villain voices, etc.
The show is proving its success with posts of double-digit gains in kid demographics from this time last year, according to tvbythenumbers.com. The younglings, especially boys, are watching.
Meanwhile, Forcecast.net has a roundtable discussion on last week’s ‘Children of the Force.’
The Clone Wars a hit for Cartoon Network
It scored the best-ever premiere ratings in the channel’s history, and was top-rated among kids and teens. (via)
Star Wars scores big for Spike TV
Revenge of the Sith pulled record ratings for the cable network, and Attack of the Clones and The Phantom Menace did pretty good, too. In fact, Spike did very well this weekend, beating everyone in key demographics but CBS, which was was showing some arcane college basketball ritual.
TNT made a valiant effort with Lord of the Rings, but it’s been almost two years since they premiered Return of the King.
Terminators rule the ratings
The premiere of The Sarah Connor Chronicles did very well last night: it can boast having “the best opening night demo ratings of any new show in three years,” according to Variety. Not too shabby, but fans best hope a good chunk of that audience keeps showing up, given the show is on Fox.
Sci-Fi Channel reports 4th quarter ratings
Much has been made of Battlestar Galactica’s ratings ‘slip’ this season, but Sci-Fi reports that the second half of season 3 rose 8% from the second half of season 2, and that it’s making significant gains with (shock!) female viewers. Eureka also did well, with the series premiere being the highest-rated and most-watched series in network history.
Inappropriate for young children, the dark side is
And now for some legitimate news – AICN is reporting that Revenge of the Sith will be PG-13. I don’t think anyone is really surprised – Lucas has been saying that Sith would earn the higher rating for a while now.
I wonder how many chopped-off limbs this means?
PG-13? For Star Wars?!
Wow. Things must really be getting dark in Episode 3 if there’s the possibility of a PG-13 rating.
Of course, George ascribes this to the emotional intensity of the film. Could it possibly be the death and carnage that we know will occur, instead? However, there’s no blood in the GFFA. So emotional intensity it is!