Photo Credit: Michael Gibson/FX
That creepy eyeworm billboard may have put off a few viewers but apparently not many, at least not enough that mattered. TV By the Numbers reports that The Strain made its debut Sunday night scoring 2.99 million total viewers. According to Deadline, that is 42% higher than the 2.1 million viewers the latest FX drama Tyrant got on its June 24th premiere and 12% higher than Fargo pulled with its debut on April 15th. The new horror drama is based upon a book trilogy written by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan, with book one being the groundwork for season one of the series.
The series opened when a plane originating from Berlin, Germany, lands at JFK with all but four of its 210 passengers apparently dead. It tracks the investigation of Drs. Ephraim Goodweather (Corey Stoll), Nora Martinez (Mia Maestro) and Jim Kent (Sean Astin), all of the Center for Disease Control Canary Team, as they race against the clock to find the source of the outbreak. But when strange anomalies are found in the deceased passengers and a mysterious box full of soil disappears from the airport, they begin to suspect they are up against far more than your typical virus.
Needless to say, I am super-excited over this news. And for those who are wondering if later episodes will be on par with the pilot, trust me when I say they are. I have already screened the next three episodes and they are even better than the premiere.
The Strain airs on Sunday nights at 10/9c on FX.
