Posted:
19:37:19 on June 17 2002
By: Steve Krutzler
Dept: General Genre/SciFi
The series premiere of Michael Piller and Nicole de Boer's genre series THE DEAD ZONE scored impressive overnight ratings for cable outlet USA Network last night.
Earning a 5.1 overnight according to Broadcast & Cable, and a 4.7 final according to USA, the series becomes the highest rated cable network television series premiere ever.
Insiders prior to the show's premiere had been hoping for a number similar to what THE SHIELD, a series on cable network FX, received: 4.1.
UPDATE 6/18: Speaking with the official STAR TREK web site, Michael Piller says today that he's absolute thrilled with the record-setting performance of his new series.
"I'm thrilled! They've just ordered additional scripts. [USA Network president] Doug Herzog just called me and told me how absolutely thrilled they are at the network."
The exec credits STAR TREK fans who followed his work as well as the Stephen King fans for the success, saying, "I certainly think a great deal of our success can be attributed to the Star Trek fans who have supported me all these years, and obviously the Stephen King fans whom we've tried so hard to bring to the show and satisfy. I just couldn't be happier."
He goes on to concede some ground to some reviewers who criticized the murder-mystery plot early in the series.
"We only did a cliffhanger for the first episode, and I'm kind of glad now that we didn't extend the serial killer thing. I have no argument with the few critics who complain that it looks like Johnny (Anthony Michael Hall) is going to immediately get involved with serial killers. Nothing could be less interesting to me. I've felt, however, that Stephen King had used a serial killer case to help define Johnny Smith's powers and I wanted to treat the original material, the novel, with a genuine reverence which generally, screenwriters don't give to the source material. I felt an obligation to explore this the way that Stephen King did. I think the second episode is terrific in the way we approach that story. We're true to the novel but we executed it, just as we did in the pilot, in a very original way. Once it's over it's over and we move on to other stories, some of which are inspired by the book and some of which we've come up with on our own based on characters in the book."
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