Exclusive: Last Sunday DR’s flagship series Liberty had a slight advantage on TV2’s Greyzone in the battle for TV ratings, as both shows went head to head on the 20.00 slot.

DR Drama’s opening episode of Liberty had 860,000 viewers on linear TV, plus 50,000 on streaming, for a 39.3% share. The ratings for episode one of the thriller Greyzone was 611,000 viewers and 28 % share, with a satisfaction evaluation of 4.1 on a scale of 1-5.

Review-wise, both series were praised by leading newspapers, although the ex-pat drama Liberty had again a small upper hand. Berlingske gave 5 stars to Liberty and 4 to Greyzone; Jyllands-Posten 6 to Liberty and 4 to Greyzone, Ekstra Bladet 5 to Liberty and 3 to Greyzone, while Politiken enjoyed both series equally with 4 stars each.

Jyllands-Posten said that with Liberty, "DR has once again proved that they are at the forefront when developing new quality drama for television," and Politiken described the production value as ‘towering’. Karoline Leth, producer of Liberty told nordicfilmandtvnews.com: “We are very, very pleased with the launch of the series and grateful that both viewers and critics have received it so well. We’re looking forward to the next episode this coming Sunday.”

Liberty had its world premiere at Berlinale Series attended by the key cast and crew such as creator Asger Leth and director Mikael Marcimain. DR Sales handles world sales.

Regarding Greyzone, Politiken was particularly impressed by the performance of Birgitte Hjort Sørensen who plays a drone engineer, kidnapped by terrorists, while Berlingske welcomed the series’ breath of fresh air’, beyond Nordic noir.

Katrine Vogelsang, Head of Drama at TV2 Denmark said she was satisfied with the premiere ratings that compare to the most recent shows in a similar genre such as Norskov and Bron/The Bridge.

Asked how she felt about the simultaneous launch of Liberty on DR1, she said: “We believe there is room for both shows on the market, which has been proved by the way both series have fared, according to results in similar genres. All in all, I think it was a great Sunday evening for Danish viewers who had a choice between two very different Danish drama series of high quality.”

Greyzone will continue to play on TV2’s main channel and digitally on TV2 Play as part of the Danish media group’s strategy ‘to deliver new drama on TV2 Play 52 weeks a year’.
The 10-part show Greyzone was introduced to selected international buyers by ITV Studios Global Entertainment on February 21 at their first Drama Festival in London, alongside other premium series on their spring catalogue.

Read our interview with Greyzone showronnuer Rasmus Thorsen CLICK HERE.

Both Liberty and Greyzone were backed by Nordisk Film & TV Fond.