Strike Back (TV series)

Strike Back is a British action thriller television series based on the 2007 novel of the same name by novelist and former Special Air Service soldier Chris Ryan. The series follows the actions of Section 20, a secretive branch of the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, aka MI6), who operate several high risk, priority missions around the world. The six-part first series began broadcasting on Sky One on 5 May 2010.

After a second series was commissioned, it was announced that Cinemax would co-produce the franchise. The first episode of the ten-part second series, under the banner title Project Dawn in the United Kingdom, first aired on Cinemax on 12 August 2011. The ten-part third series, under the title Strike Back: Vengeance, began airing on Cinemax on 17 August 2012. On 3 October 2012, Cinemax and Sky commissioned a fourth series, Strike Back: Shadow Warfare, which was broadcast on Cinemax beginning 9 August 2013. A ten-episode, fifth series titled Strike Back: Legacy aired in 2015, with the last episode airing on 29 July, and at that point, this was to be final series for the show.

On 8 December 2016, Cinemax and Sky announced they would revive the show for a sixth series, Strike Back: Retribution which debuted on 31 October 2017 on Sky One in the UK, and in the US on Cinemax on 2 February 2018. On 27 March 2018, Strike Back was renewed for a seventh series titled Strike Back: Revolution. Filming commenced in late 2018, with a release date of 25 January 2019 on Cinemax and 28 February 2019 on Sky One. On 27 February 2019, Cinemax renewed the series for an eighth and final series titled Strike Back: Vendetta, which premiered on 14 February 2020.

Ratings for Strike Back were relatively high for the original networks. The Sky One premiere was viewed by almost 400,000 viewers (according to overnight figures), tripling the average audience share for the channel's time slot after three months. Project Dawn premiered to more than 600,000. The Cinemax premiere saw the network's best ratings since 2005.