`War' premieres to 18.7 million viewers

PBS estimates 18.7 million viewers saw Sunday's airings of "The War," the first chapter of Ken Burns' seven-part documentary about World War II.

An audience of 15.5 million viewers tuned to the 8-to-10:30 p.m. premiere, with a repeat airing at 10:30 p.m. drawing the additional viewers.

Preliminary figures for "The War" exceeded all but three of Burns' previous series: "The Civil War" (1990), "Lewis & Clark" (1997) and "Baseball" (1994), PBS said.

"The Civil War" miniseries drew a cumulative audience of 38.9 million viewers and "Baseball" was seen by a total of 43.1 million viewers. They hold the records for the largest total audiences for any program in PBS' history, the network said.

Those cumulative numbers for "The War" will be available in November from Nielsen Media Research, PBS said.

"The War" continues airing through Wednesday, then next Sunday through Oct. 2.

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On the Net:

http://www.pbs.org/thewar