German Debut of 'Dallas' Reboot Draws 3.9 Million Viewers

COLOGNE, Germany -- The back-stabbing world of the Texas oil business seems to have lost none of its appeal for German viewers, as TNT's reboot of primetime soap Dallas premiered to a solid 3.9 million viewers here Tuesday night.

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Leading commercial network RTL kicked off season one of the new Dallas with two episodes, scoring a 25.4 percent share of the core 14-49 year-old demographic.

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That performance puts Dallas in the A-league with other top U.S. series in Germany, including CSI and Bones, which drew 3.94 million and 4.33 million viewers, respectively, for RTL earlier in the evening.

It remains to be seen whether Dallas can hold on to that audience. The series was last year's biggest cable debut on TNT with a whopping 6.9 million viewers for its first episode last summer. That performance convinced TNT to boost its order to 15 episodes for its sophomore outing. But the two-hour premiere of the second season disappointed, pulling in just 2.98 million viewers.

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Dallas enjoys a particular cult status in Germany. The original series was the first primetime soap to air on German TV and is a cultural touchstone here. The late Larry Hagman, who filmed five episodes for season two of Dallas before his death in November, is also a familiar face on German screens, recently doing a series of tongue-in-cheek ads for a solar energy company, in which he plays his iconic Dallas character J.R. Ewing.