Spike TV’s new vampire action series “Blade: The Series” scored the network’s biggest recorded premiere for an original series on Wednesday, June 28th. The show brought in 2.5 million viewers with its two-hour premiere making it the top original series premiere in the network’s history. The series picks up after the three Blade movies, and stars Kirk “Sticky” Jones as the half-human, half-vampire title character.
“We promised action and adventure with our first scripted series and really delivered,” Spike TV President Doug Herzog says. “Our targeted audience of men came through for us with big numbers. ‘Blade: The Series’ serves as a launch pad for future original scripted shows.”
In addition to reaching its male audience of 18-49, the new series also performed solidly overall across the spectrum. Nearly half the audience (1.17 million people) made up that targeted group which is a vast improvement over the network’s ratings over the same time period last year.
Yesterday’s show felt like a weak episode of Highlander. Not enough Krista and it lacked any of the coolness (what little there was) in the pilot.
I’ll give it another week or two, since there is nothing else on Wednesday nights at 10 🙂
I thought it was a little weak, too. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve watched worse. But with nothing else to watch on Wednesday nights, I’m not giving up on it just yet.
It’s SPIKE TV. Not HBO.
That having been said, so far I find it a little cheesy. But not in a bad way. Cheesy in an entertaining, makes-me-laugh-out-loud-and-talk-back-to-the-TV kind of way.
The scanitilly clad “hotties” (it’s Spike, y’all), the over-the-top acting, the language. Ah, how refreshing to actually hear people talk like…well, like *people*! Krista sees a vamp killed and says what WE ALL would say: “Holy Shit…!” Yay! It’s 10pm. Send the kids to bed. This is Grown-up Folks TV!
Nah, it ain’t “Deadwood”, but it’s kind of refreshing nonetheless.
I thought it was cool that the first ep of the tv series was tied so close to the pilot, and liked it quite a bit.
I didn’t catch any Highlander overtones, but did get a laugh during the steel cage wrestling match.
They said that the show would be taking a serial approach (like Lost), where the episodes are strung together in one big storyline, instead of separate episodes that can be put in any order. This way it’s like one long movie.
I like that. It’s one of the reasons I like shows like Lost and 24. Every week you’re getting at least one more piece of the big picture. (This show may be less serious than those, but it’s still fun to watch.)