Showtime rolled out its new horror series over the weekend and the show delivered strong ratings for the pay-cable channel. Variety reports that “Penny Dreadful” averaged 872,000 viewers for its first airing Sunday and 1.443 million for the evening.

That was more than the network’s recent debuts for “Masters of Sex” and “Homeland,” the piece notes. “Penny Dreadful” has received positive reviews.

“An additional 900,000 subscribers sampled the series in the two weeks leading up to its premiere Sunday on Showtime on Demand and Showtime Anytime, according to Nielsen. This brings the total for ‘Penny’ to 2.3 million viewers,” the story adds.

Almost two-thirds of the audience for “Penny Dreadful” was under 50 years old, which makes it the youngest-skewing audience for a Showtime drama since “Dexter” debuted in 2006, the story says.