More than 60 years after D-day, Americans are still very interested in World War II. PBS reports that an estimated 18.7 million viewers watched Sunday’s broadcasts of “The War,” the first of Ken Burns’ seven-part documentary about World War II.

The 8 p.m. premiere drew 15.5 million viewers to the small screen, with the rest watching the repeat airing that immediately followed. The documentary airs the final chapter of “The War” on Wednesday, and will re-broadcast the program next Sunday through October 2.

Touted on the PBS website as “the story of the Second World War through the personal accounts of a handful of men and women from four American towns,” the documentary was produced by Burns and Lynn Novick. “We are honored that the country is focusing on our film,” Burns and Novick said in a PBS news release Monday, “More importantly, however, we are very pleased that the country is focusing on the contribution of this generation and the larger meaning of war.”

The broadcast of “The War” was accompanied by an extensive community outreach initiative involving PBS member stations in every state in the nation — a partnership with the Library of Congress Veterans History project that is reaching into every high school in the country and extensive screenings in more than 50 markets.

In addition, a multi-year public relations campaign, PBS’ in-house advertising division and three industry corporate underwriters — General Motors, Anheuser-Busch and Bank of America — organized a unified print, radio and television advertising campaign, the largest campaign in PBS’ history.

“PBS is delighted by the opening night rating of THE WAR, a testament to this masterpiece by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. PBS, however, is less focused on a single night’s rating and more interested in serving the broadest possible cross section of the American public through the multiple broadcasts of THE WAR, the Web components, educational tools and community outreach. In terms of television audience, the key measurement for us will be the total number of people who watch the series during the initial multi-week broadcast period,” said John Boland, PBS Chief Content Officer.