The Vampire Diaries' pilot attracted a large audience.
The Vampire Diaries . The pilot episode attracted the largest audience for The CW of any series premiere since the network began in 2006 . The first season averaged 3.60 million viewers . The Vampire Diaries (season 1) . It premiered on September 10 , 2009 , on The CW and received the highest ratings for a series premiere in the networks history scoring 4.91 million live viewers .