Starz UK Broadcast BBC iPlayer
Premiere Overnight/Timeshift Interim***/Final****
The New World 1.506m * 4.8m/6.59m 0.84m/1.07m
Rendition 1.4m ** 4.4m/5.75m 0.65m/0.88m
Dead of Night 1.018m 4.2m/5.49m <0.47m/0.83m
Escape to L.A. 0.935m 4.0m/5.19m 0.78m/0.83m
The Categories of Life 1.024m 4.1m/5.17m 0.71m/0.79m
The Middle Men 0.804m 3.4m/4.60m 0.61m/0.72m
Immortal Sins 0.917m 3.4m/4.48m 0.49m/0.68m
End of the Road 1.172m 3.5m/4.64m 0.61m
The Gathering 1.024m 3.5m/4.63m 0.59m
The Blood Line 0.950m 3.9m/5.13m 0.55m
* - Starz reported 2.7m viewers for the full week/Live+3 DVR data
** - This is a weekend figure, with 609,000 viewers for the 10:00pm broadcast
*** - Interim figures from July(1-3) and August(4-7)
**** - All episodes were available on iPlayer until 22nd September
That gives the series in the UK a final average of 5.167m, which isn't exceptional but around average for dramas in this time period (as I mentioned in my previous article on ratings, this is seven days coverage including catching up on recordings). Most episodes put on an additional million viewers on the original night's viewing, which did dip quite drastically when Celebrity Big Brother returned to Channel 5 at the time The Middle Men was broadcast.
The BBC iPlayer results indicate a good half a million chose to watch the series that way, too; it might seem like a steady decline, but as all episodes were up until the 22nd September the earlier ones had more "airtime" of course!
Is this enough for another series? Actually it probably doesn't matter as it is really down to Starz and Russell T Davies as to whether another is made; by all accounts Starz were happy with their ratings for the show, but time is running out for a decision on next year, though (and Starz CEO Chris Albrecht didn't think it would happen straight away anyhow). So it could just be a matter if and when RTD has an idea for a new series and the time to write it.
Just for comparison, Children of Earth in the same timeslot across the week on BBC1/BBCHD in 2009 had an average of 6.604m. Series One on BBC3 on Sunday evenings in 2006 achieved 1.422m, and Series Two on BBC2/BBC3 in 2008 achieved 3.78m.
