The premiere of season 3 of A Place to Call Home on Foxtel's SoHo has attracted a a consolidated cumulative audience of 500,000 viewers.
According to OzTam figures, that ranks as the third most watched drama series in subscription TV history, trailing Game of Thrones and Wentworth.
The Sunday September 27 broadcast of A Place to Call Home scored an overnight consolidated audience of 255,000, the most watched program ever on SoHo and the fourth most popular series on pay TV this year behind Game of Thrones, Selling Houses Australia and The Flash.
The figures vindicate the decision by Foxtel executive director of television Brian Walsh to commission two series of the Seven Productions show created by Bevan Lee after the Seven Network elected not to renew it.
Walsh said: “We are knocked out by this outstanding result. It is a timely reminder that Australians love great Australian story telling and quality drama which is well conceived, beautifully written, directed and performed.
"The result once again demonstrates Foxtel’s commitment to commissioning great Australian stories and our thanks to our friends and colleagues at Seven Productions for crafting such a fine piece of Australian television drama."
In next Sunday's episode (the fourth of 10 in this season), Anna’s (Abby Earl) dream of marrying her farm boy turns into harsh reality. Sarah (Marta Dusseldorp) meets a young girl and her mother seek out Sarah’s help when a medical procedure goes horribly wrong.
Elizabeth (Noni Hazlehurst) reaches out to the damaged men at Douglas’ (Robert Coleby) refuge by playing the piano. Sarah is compelled to tell René (Ben Winspear) the truth.
Chris Martin-Jones is the series producer and Susan Bower is the script producer.