The numbers are in for the premiere of Stargate Universe in the United States, Canada, U.K. and Australia, and MGM seems to be happy with the results.  The studio celebrated the show’s worldwide launch in a new press release today.

As we previously reported, the 2-hour series premiere bowed in the U.S. with 2.35 million viewers and a 1.7 household rating for Syfy Channel (story).  This bested a new episode of FOX’s genre series Dollhouse.

On SPACE in Canada, “Air” premiered to an audience of 565,000, making it the channel’s most-watched single episode ever (story).

In the U.K., Sky1’s premiere drew 1,042,000 viewers for the first hour and 961,000 for the second — the biggest audience for a Stargate series in almost five years, MGM said.

And last Friday in Australia, the pay cable network SCI FI premiered SGU to a 6.4% share, bettering the timeslot’s previous holder by 411 percent.

While ratings in the United States have always been pivotal for Stargate’s renewal (since Syfy foots most of the bill for the show’s production budget), the franchise has always had a very strong international presence.  SG-1 and Atlantis aired (and are still airing) in well over 100 countries.

New episodes of Stargate Universe continue every Friday at 9 p.m. (8 Central) on Syfy; Friday at 10 p.m. (Eastern) on SPACE in Canada; Friday at 8:30 p.m. on SCI FI in Australia; and Tuesday at 8 p.m. on Sky1 in the United Kingdom.

NEXT: Read the full press release