Cineflix’s Copper grabbed 403,200 Canadians for its Sunday night premiere on Showcase at 9 p.m., making it the top specialty program of the night (2+), according to numbers from BBM Canada provided by Shaw Media.

The period crime drama is produced in association with Shaw Median and BBC America and was shot in Toronto earlier this year. It follows an Irish-American cop, played by Tom Weston-Jones, who works the notorious Five Points Neighbourhood in 19th-century New York, and his quest to investigate his wife’s disappearance and his daughter’s death.

Before its premiere, the series – Cineflix’s first scripted drama – had secured pre-sales to Fox International Channels as the exclusive first window pay-TV broadcaster for 53 world markets, including Australia, Italy, Spain and Portugal.

Leading up to the series premiere, Showcase launched a four-week multi-platform advertising campaign spotlighting both Copper and U.S. import buddy cop series Common Law, which debuted after Copper at 10 p.m. Sunday and took the #3 specialty spot.

In the U.S., Copper premiered on Aug. 19 as the channel’s highest rated series premiere ever, according to a release from BBC America, delivering 1.1 million total viewers, and 514,000 viewers in the 25-54 demo (numbers from Nielsen Media Research provided by BBC America and Cineflix).

The series also stars Canadian Kyle Schmid (Blood Ties) as Manhattan aristocrat Robert Morehouse. Franka Potente (The Bourne Supremacy), Ato Essandoh (Damages) and Brit Anastasia Griffith (Royal Pains) also star.

The series is created by Tom Fontana and Will Rokos. Fontana, Rokos, Barry Levinson, Glen Salzman, Sally Catto, Sam Berliner and Christina Wayne are co-executive producers.

Here’s a breakdown of the top five specialty programs in Canada on Aug. 26, according to BBM Canada PPM overnight data (provided by Shaw Media):

Photo: Ato Essandoh, Kyle Schmid and Tom Weston-Jones / Shaw Media