Alien: Earth seems to have hit the ground running with the premiere episode raking in 9.2M views globally across FX, Hulu and Disney+ in its first six days, Disney revealed Tuesday.
This seems to be a very strong premiere outing for Noah Hawley‘s continuation of the iconic Alien franchise. However, it is not often that Disney reports viewership on its titles, particularly those at FX, making direct comparisons quite difficult. Like Netflix, Disney measures views as hours watched divided by the title’s runtime.
For context, some of the more recent performances that Disney has touted include the first episode of Agatha All Along‘s 9.3M views in the first seven days of availability. The Acolyte hit 11.1M views in five days, and Zombies 4 reached 9.3M views in 10 days.
Last year, the company said that the Season 3 premiere of The Bear amassed 5.4M views in its first four days. FX did not release any numbers for the Season 4 premiere.
Things are made even trickier by the fact that Alien: Earth is also airing on FX’s linear channel. The titles listed above were streaming-only, which would likely impact viewership, though typically most of the television audience comes from streaming regardless nowadays.
If FX reports further viewership numbers as the season progresses, that will help orient the premiere audience, as will Nielsen’s streaming data once it’s released for Alien: Earth‘s debut week in about a month.
When the mysterious deep space research vessel USCSS Maginot crash-lands on Earth, “Wendy” (Sydney Chandler) and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers make a fateful discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet’s greatest threat in FX’s Alien: Earth.
In the year 2120, the Earth is governed by five corporations: Prodigy, Weyland-Yutani, Lynch, Dynamic, and Threshold. In this Corporate Era, cyborgs (humans with both biological and artificial parts) and synthetics (humanoid robots with artificial intelligence) exist alongside humans. But the game is changed when the wunderkind Founder and CEO of Prodigy Corporation unlocks a new technological advancement: hybrids (humanoid robots infused with human consciousness).
The first hybrid prototype, named Wendy (Chandler), marks a new dawn in the race for immortality. After Weyland-Yutani’s spaceship collides with Prodigy City, Wendy and the other hybrids encounter mysterious life forms more terrifying than anyone could have ever imagined.
Episode 3 debuts Tuesday night, following the team as they return home with unexpected cargo. An unsettling experiment occurs, and a new talent is discovered. The episode is written by Noah Hawley and Bob DeLaurentis and is directed by Dana Gonzales.
Future episodes of the eight-episode season will premiere on Tuesdays on Hulu and Disney+ beginning at 8 p.m. ET and on FX at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
