Homeland, Dexter: Showtime TV Series Have Big Debuts

Showtime is understandably very happy today. The cable channel says that Homeland had an incredible launch last evening and brought in numbers that were even better than recent hit The Borgias. The sixth season debut of Dexter was also that show’s best season premiere ever.

Here’s the press release from Showtime:

HOMELAND Posts Best Ratings For A New SHOWTIME® Drama Series In Eight Years
Dexter® Returns To Its Highest-Rated Premiere Ever

Homeland Premiere at 10PM
Under the stewardship of SHOWTIME Entertainment President David Nevins, HOMELAND becomes the network’s fifth consecutive hit freshman series – on the heels of record-breaking premieres of The Big C, SHAMELESS, EPISODES and The Borgias.
HOMELAND delivered the network’s highest-rated drama premiere in eight years (since Dead Like Me with 1.11 million in 6/2003)
With 1.08 million viewers at 10 p.m., the HOMELAND debut outperformed the recent drama premieres of The Borgias (1.06 million viewers) and SHAMELESS (982,000 viewers).

The series premiere of HOMELAND was made available online and via affiliate On Demand channels (as of Sept.13), and to date has delivered over 1.4 million viewers
10:00 p.m. 1.08 million viewers
12:00 a.m. 243,000 viewers
2:00 a.m. 56,000 viewers
Online/On Demand Sampling 1.4 million viewers
Total 2.78 million viewers

DEXTER’s sixth season debut marked the series’ highest-rated premiere ever. The series has consistently topped its ratings season after season – with season six up 24% vs. season five. DEXTER season six marks the best season premiere for a SHOWTIME original series in 14 years (since Stargate in 1997).

With 2.2 million viewers at 9 p.m., DEXTER attracted the largest season premiere audience in series history, and also ranks as the top telecast for the network in 2011.

The season six debut of DEXTER delivered the biggest premiere night for an original series in network history.
9:05 p.m. 2.2 million viewers (+24% vs. last year’s premiere 1.77MM)
11:00 p.m. 467,000 viewers
1:00 a.m. 104,000 viewers
Total 2.76 MM viewers (+18% vs. last year’s premiere night 2.34MM)

What do you think? Did you watch Homeland last night? Will you watch again? How does the new season of Dexter compare with the others so far?