As we’ve been reporting here on TGD, genre TV is back, bigger than ever, and it’s great that there’s a strong menu of sci-fi, fantasy and horror to choose from. Now the return of Dracula has gotten off to a good start in the ratings.
The show stars Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as the legendary blood-sucker, and it’s gotten mostly positive reviews from the critics. (i09 calls it “ridiculous, insane, and completely fascinating.”) The Hollywood Reporter tells us the show also got a nice debut, winning its demo for 18-49 year olds, and having an audience of 5.3 million viewers.
As Entertainment Weekly points out, Dracula could be the next hit show for NBC this season along with The Blacklist. This is a nice little bit of nostalgia for me, because when I was a little kid I loved the short-lived TV show Cliffhangers, a compilation program with three separate stories. The Curse of Dracula was one of the segments, the best one of the show, and ’79 was a great year for vampires with TV movie Salem’s Lot, the Universal Dracula remake with Frank Langella, and more.
It’s nice to see real vampires back for a change, and as a long time horror fan, I’m really stoked to see the genre return to television. Back in the ‘70’s, there were quite a few horror TV movies, and classic shows like Kolchak that weren’t big ratings winners back in the day, but today it’s thankfully a much different story.
