By programming Jacob Thuesen's crime series at one of the best prime time slots on Danish TV, Denmark's commercial broadcaster TV2 clearly displayed its new strategy to up the stakes for local fiction in its production slate and to heat up competition with the Danish broadcasting corporation DR. With star actors Ulrich Thomsen, and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Thure Lindhardt in the lead roles, the series about the infamous terrorist group Blekinge Street Gang scored with young adults (620,000 viewers between 21-50 years-old) and gave TV2 its biggest viewing rate of 2009 for a Danish TV series.
However the viewing level remains lower than for DR's popular series such as the first episode of The Protectors (Livvagterne), seen by 1.4m Danes or for Forbrydelsen (The Killing) followed by an average 1.7m Danes per episode, according to Denmark's Mediawatch.
Blekingegade was produced in association with SVT, YLE, support from the Danish Film Institute's New Public Service Fund, the MEDIA Programme and Nordisk Film & TV Fond. The second episode will air this Sunday evening on TV2.