Tin Man breaks viewing records in the US

By John Freeman on December 6, 2007

Three nights of The Wizard of Oz-inspired SciFi Channel US’ Tin Man, produced by RHI Entertainment, has earned the miniseries “most watched miniseries in Sci Fi history” status with 5.3 million viewers over the three nights, 2.7 million A18-49 and 2.9 million A25-54, according to Nielsen’s live and same day data.

The SFTV blog points out that considering SciFi’s regular shows have been struggling to get much above a 1.0 rating, drawing a 4.2 Household rating is pretty significant. “It looks like if SciFi puts together something that catches peoples interest, they can still find the channel.”

The series is an epic re-imagining of L. Frank Baum‘s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz that gives the story a heavy science fiction fantasy emphasis and gives only allusionary references to most of the original story.

In total viewers, Tin Man surpassed both Dune (4.6 million viewers) and Taken (5.0 million viewers).

There’s no word yet on whether SciFi UK or any other UK channel has accquired the rights to the mini series, but I’m sure it won’t be long before there’s an announcement. Both Hallmark and Sky One have screened RHI series in the past.

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.