AMC western miniseries ‘Broken Trail’ breaks record

The first installment of AMC Western miniseries ‘Broken Trail’ broke a few ratings records Sunday night. AMC’s first original movie, starring Robert Duvall and Thomas Hayden Church, scored a 7.6 household rating June 25, translating into 6.7 million households and 9.8 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research data.AMC officials said the household mark made Broken Trail the second-highest-delivered original telefilm in basic-cable history, behind only the 7.7 million households that tuned into TNT’s airing of another Western – ‘Crossfire Trail,’ starring Tom Selleck, Jan. 21, 2001.‘Broken Trail’ easily shattered AMC’s previous ratings record: a 2.7 generated last July for the premiere of its fully restored and digitally remastered showing of John Wayne-starrer ‘The High and the Mighty,’ which had not been seen by the public, at that time, in more than a quarter-century. That presentation attracted 3.3 million viewers.A ‘Broken Trail’ encore immediately following Sunday night roped a 3.23 household rating and 3.8 million viewers, bringing the cume viewership for the first night of the miniseries to some 13.6 million watchers, according to the network.Numbers for the second-night premiere June 26 are expected later Tuesday.‘Broken Trai’l stars Duvall and Church as an uncle-nephew team driving a herd of horses from Oregon to Wyoming. Along the way, they intercept a villain transporting a group of Chinese girls who have been sold by their families into a life of prostitution, and they attempt to find a better fate for that human cargo.