"Spartacus: War of the Damned" Storms out to Second Highest Ratings Ever for a STARZ Original Series Season Debut; Final Season of Starz "Spartacus" Franchise Sees More Than 2.5 Million Overall Viewers Premiere Weekend

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.