Ratings Roundup: German Prime Time

PREMIUM: Transporter: The Series, RTL’s big new co-production with HBO, got off to a solid start in Germany last week.

RTL became the first network worldwide to give viewers a look at the series, based on the Transporter movies. The pilot, airing Thursday (October 11), pulled 4.01 million viewers and a share of 12.9 percent. HBO Canada and French channel M6 are also co-producing the show, created by Luc Besson. The debut on RTL pulled 2.04 million viewers aged 14-49 for a share of 17.3 percent in that demo.

The pilot episode on RTL went head-to-head with Criminal Minds on Sat.1, which showed two episodes of that series back to back. The first episode trailed Transporter with 2.57 million and a share of 8.3 percent. But the second episode of Criminal Minds pulled 3.09 million / 10.6 percent and beat RTL’s long-running original police series Alarm für Cobra (3.03 million / 10.3 percent).

The best performing imported series of the week October 7-14 in Germany was CSI: Miami on RTL. The episode on Tuesday (October 8) averaged 4.31 million viewers and a share of 13.5 percent, number three overall in prime time. RTL also did pretty well with House that evening (3.44 million / 11.3 percent).

ProSieben showed back-to-back U.S. sitcoms in prime time on the same night, airing double episodes of Two & A Half Men and The Big Bang Theory with a single of 2 Broke Girls in between. The five programs were remarkably consistent, ranging between 2.07 million viewers and 2.35 million.

Vox had the top U.S. import on Monday with CSI: NY (2.65 million / 8.2 percent). Vox also had the top import on Wednesday with The Closer (2.19 million/ 7.6 percent). ProSieben showed Grey’s Anatomy (1.63 million / 5.4 percent), New Girl (1.49 million / 5.0 percent) and How I Met Your Mother (1.55 million / 5.9 percent).

On Friday, Vox again had the top series with CSI: Miami (650,000 viewers), far below competing American movies on Sat.1, ProSieben and RTL II, which drew the biggest audience with Miss Congeniality II (2.69 million / 6.1 percent).

Kabel Eins had the strongest import on Saturday with NCIS (1.73 million / 6.5 percent).

On Sunday (October 14), NCIS was also the top import, this time on Sat.1 with 3.21 million / 8.6 percent. Sat.1 showed The Mentalist next (3.01 million / 8.8 percent). The U.S. crime series beat Harry Potter & The Philosopher’s Stone on RTL but trailed disaster flick 2012 (directed by German Roland Emmerich) on ProSieben (3.79 million / 12.0 percent).

German news channel n-tv set an audience record for itself Sunday with  coverage of the Red Bull Stratos skydive. Live coverage of Felix Baumgartner’s freefall in the afternoon pulled 2.24 million viewers and a share of 8.8 percent, while the wrap-up in prime time drew over 6 million.