True Blood Debuts to 1.6 Million in UK

True Blood‘s run on UK network Channel 4 opened big last night with an estimated 1.6 million viewers tuning in to see the series premiere. An additional 145,000 viewers tuned in on Channel 4 +1, the network’s time-shifted channel. Alexander Skarsgard’s Generation Kill debuted with about 430,000 viewers.

Channel 4 is equivalent to a broadcast network like NBC or CBS here in the States with almost universal coverage of the UK and some neighboring countries. True Blood‘s previous run on premium sattelite channel FX UK reached a more limited audience (think HBO vs. CBS).