The opening double episodes, which aired on 13 February, attracted an average of 1,320,000 viewers nationally, minus Victoria, making it the third most-watched show of the night. In Victoria alone, the series was expected to attract 800,000 to 1 million viewers, which would have put Underbelly figures over the 2 million mark. The replacement movie for Underbelly in Victoria, The Shawshank Redemption, managed only 271,000 viewers. The third episode, which aired on 20 February, managed to hold most of its viewers from its premiere, attracting 1,273,000 viewers nationally, a decline of only 50,000 viewers. The fourth episode, which aired on 27 February, managed to hold nearly all of its viewers from the previous episode, attracting 1,250,000 viewers nationally, a decline of only 23,000 viewers. Although leaked copies of all the episodes became available online, the show continued to attract "huge television audiences". Underbelly averaged 1.26 million viewers for all 13 episodes.
