‘The Missing’ Ratings: Starz’s Drama Has Steady Premiere Weekend

The debut of the 8-episode limited series from Starz and the BBC drew 879,000 viewers for all its weekend plays. Taking over the 9 PM Saturday slot previously held by Survivor’s Remorse, which ended its first season 6-episode run on November 8, the 9 showings of The Missing outperformed the much more comedic show over all its showings on its premiere weekend last month. Survivor’s Remorse pulled 605,000 viewers in total on its debut weekend of October 4 and 5 in Live + Same Day results.

For its first showing on November 15, the series about the disappearance of a 5-year old child and the often harrowing consequences got 268,000 viewers. That’s up 32% from what the quickly renewed Survivor’s Remorse had in its 9 PM October 4 airing. However it is way down from 720,000 who tuned in for the Outlander debut on August 9. Like several past new Starz series such as Survivor’s Remorse and Outlander, The Missing previewed online a week before its small screen opening. While down compared to the other two series, The Missing had a digital sampling of 128,000.

Written by Jack and Harry Williams and helmed by Ripper Street director Tom Shankland, The Missing stars James Nesbitt and Frances O’Connor as the parents haunted and destroyed by the loss of their son. The series first debuted on the BBC in the UK in mid October.