‘Roots’ premiere watched by 8.5m people in US

Nielsen says 5.3 million viewers watched the multi-network debut of Roots on Memorial Day, making it the most-watched scripted miniseries premiere on cable television since 2013 when Bonnie & Clyde aired on A&E.

According to Nielsen Fast National numbers, the audience totalled 8.5 million over the course of Monday’s three telecasts of the initial episode.

The remaining three episodes air Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

The miniseries is based on Alex Haley’s 1976 best-seller novel, Roots: The Saga of an American Family. It comes four decades after the original Roots miniseries became a national phenomenon when it aired on ABC in 1977.