The Bible, Vikings Deliver for HISTORY

NEW YORK: The Sunday night debut of Vikings on HISTORY pulled in 8.3 million total viewers, making it the number one new cable series launch of the year among adults 25 to 54, while the network’s premiere of The Bible on the same night averaged 14.8 million viewers, making it the number one cable entertainment telecast.

The Bible, created and executive produce by Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, averaged 14.8 million viewers over two telecasts on premiere night. This included 5 million adults 18 to 49 and 5.6 million adults 25 to 54. Leading into the premiere, History.com had its best day ever, and The Bible trended as number one on Twitter.

Over its two telecasts on premiere night, Vikings delivered 8.3 million total viewers, 3.4 million of which were in the 18-to-49 demo and 3.8 million in the 25-to-54 group. Vikings topped all broadcast networks among adults 18 to 49.

Nancy Dubuc, the president of entertainment and media at A+E Networks, said, “The success of The Bible has catapulted HISTORY into one of the most powerful brands across media landscape and we could not be more thrilled and more proud. We are the number one cable entertainment telecast of the year to date! Leading into the premiere we had the best day ever on History.com, and The Bible trended number one on Twitter. Clearly there is a nationwide groundswell that was waiting for this moment. We launched an incredible and coordinated campaign—HISTORY worked hand in hand with Roma and Mark and their talented team. An enormous debt of gratitude goes out to everyone and the amazing effort put forth to drive us to this amazing win. Clearly the passion for this project has resonated with our viewers and across the nation. We are thrilled, and the story is only just beginning.”

“We could not be more thrilled with this out of the gate success of The Bible on HISTORY,” added Downey and Burnett. "The world is watching right now and we are incredibly humbled by the reaction to the series. This number one series is a tribute to all those who have helped us to spread the Word. Ultimately The Bible will be seen and felt by billions around the globe. We have to thank Nancy Dubuc and her HISTORY team for stepping up and joining us on this amazing journey—together we are now able to share this most sacred text that will continue to challenge and inspire.

“Today, more people are discussing God’s chosen people—Moses and Abraham—in one day than ever before. We’ve been working on this project for the past four years now, and are deeply honored to be given this once in a generation opportunity to breathe new visual life into the Bible’s profound stories. The Bible gives meaning and purpose to billions of people around the world. We believe the success of the series will spark the curiosity of billions more.”

“Vikings is an incredible win for HISTORY—our first scripted series. We began this journey over six years ago, when we set sail to broaden the genre of HISTORY and now we are the only cable network to have achieved this amazing level of success in both nonfiction and scripted genres,” said Dubuc. “People think they know the Vikings—but the reality is more complex. We knew our audience had an appetite for this unexpected storytelling and it was a big bet that paid off.”