Apparently, no one wanted to see a heavily made-up Russell Crowe as ousted  Fox News' CEO Rogert Ailes.

Showtime's seven-episode miniseries stars Crowe as the late Chairman and CEO of Fox News. Ailes resigned in July 2016 after several allegations of sexual harassment, including from former Fox personality Megyn Kelly.

"The Loudest Voice" debuted to a measly 651,000 viewers on Sunday night. That includes its TV debut, two reruns, and streaming/on-demand tune-in. According to Nielsen, the first TV airing at 10 p.m. Sunday attracted just 299,000 viewers.

To put things in perspective Showtime’s last limited series, "Escape at Dannemora," debuted to 397,000 "live" viewers, which is 25% higher than "The Loudest Voice."

A spokeswoman for Showtime told The Wrap that the total numbers for “The Loudest Voice” are "in line with other recent limited series premiering on the network."

As a premium cable channel, Showtime depends on subscribers, not advertisers, for revenue, so this is perhaps not as disastrous as it would be on, say, ABC or NBC.

Through reruns and streaming, Showtime says it expects the premiere to pass the one million viewer count "within a few days."

However, this dismal debut does not bode well for an as-yet-untitled Ailes movie from director Jay Roach, which stars John Lithgow as Ailes, Charlize Theron as Megyn Kelly and Nicole Kidman as Gretchen Carlson. It's currently in post-production and will be released December 20.

[Via The Wrap]