Syfy’s new series “Blood Drive” premiered Wednesday night, and ratings for the episode compare decently to those of Syfy’s other recent launches.
According to live+same-day data posted by Showbuzz, Wednesday’s “Blood Drive” drew a 0.24 adults 18-49 rating and averaged 834,000 overall viewers. It led out of a screening of “Mad Max: Fury Road,” which posted a 0.27 in the demo and 981,000 in viewership.
For the sake of comparison, the November 11, 2016 premiere of the since-canceled “Incorporated” drew a 0.15 rating and 523,000 viewers. Worth noting: the “Incorporated” premiere aired concurrently on USA, where it posted a 0.20 rating and 0.59 million viewers. One cannot, however, assume all of those viewers would have watched on Syfy if only given the one option (subsequent “Incorporated” episodes generally performed at or below the level of the Syfy premiere).
“Channel Zero” opened with a 0.25 rating and 761,000 viewers in October 2016. Unlike “Blood Drive,” Syfy’s “Channel Zero” did not receive a notable lead-in boost.
A few months prior to “Channel Zero,” Syfy launched its original series “Van Helsing.” Airing out of “Sharknado: The 4th Awakens” (0.82, 2.77 million), the special Sunday premiere drew a 0.35 rating and 1.237 million viewers on July 31, 2016.
Its time period premiere, however, drew a weaker 0.18 rating and 0.83 million viewers on Friday, September 2016.
To make a long story short, “Blood Drive” did not post monster numbers, but it did fare reasonably well by Syfy standards.
The question, however, will concern its ability to hold up in the weeks ahead — without lead-in support from a compatible, successful movie like “Mad Max.”
