'Borgia' beats records on Canal Plus

"Borgia"PARIS -- Tom Fontana's edgy costume drama "Borgia" beat all-time record ratings on Gaul's Canal Plus when the initial few episodes bowed in primetime on Monday. Surpassing records formerly set by "Desperate Regular folksInch and Olivier Marchal's "Braquo," the launch of "Borgia" attracted greater than 1.6 000 0000 audiences, 26.7% in the paybox's clients, per Canal Plus' representative. The 12-part series, which has completed its run in Italia, also attracted hit ratings on Sky Cinema, which causes it to be the pay TV channel's best running TV drama of year. Enjoying useful advantages of good individual to individual, the $Thirty Dollars million show increased being popular each week. While 229,000 audiences up-to-date looking for the pilot, 420,000 audiences seen the ultimate episode, nearly 10% of Sky Cinema clients. Repped by Jan Mojto's Munich-based Beta Film, "Borgia" has offered in nearly 40 nations and was recently acquired by Netflix for U.S. and Canadian rights. The Renaissance-set show concentrates on the infamous clan which is cunning, yet charming patriarch, Rodrigo Borgia, while he increases to energy inside the Vatican and becomes Pope Alexander Mire. "Borgia" toplines John Doman ("The Wire"), Assumpta Serna ("Matador"), Art Malik ("True Lies") and Udo Kier ("Edge"). Fully-funded in Europe, the costume drama was commissioned by Canal Plus and produced by Gaul's Atlantique Prods., Mojto's Eos 550d 550d Entertainment and Prague's Etic. Show will unveil on Austria's ORF on Wednesday and also on Germany's ZDF on Monday. An foe project, Showtime's "The Borgias," which was developed round the same time period as Fontana's show, is helmed by Neil Jordan and toplines Jeremy Irons as Rodrigo Borgia. A Canada-Hungary-Ireland co-professional, "The Borgias" bowed in April and contains been restored for just about any second season. Contact the number newsroom at news@variety.com