The overnight ratings are in for Episode 1 of the new series. ‘Trojan’ was viewed by 1.46m people at the 9pm hour and 0.069m people on Dave Ja Vu at 10pm.
The combined figure of 1.525m compares with a figure of around 2.4m for ‘Back to Earth’ Part 1. They represent Dave’s two highest figures in the channel’s history. Though comparison to ‘Back to Earth’ is not necessarily fair on ‘Trojan’. ‘Trojan’ faced much tougher competition at the 9pm hour than usual and ‘Back to Earth’ Part 1 had a much higher Dave Ja Vu figure, owing to Dave Ja Vu being available on Freeview back in 2009 but being taken off Freeview in 2011.
New heavily promoted BBC One drama, Hunted, launched to 4.46m, possibly damaged by a tough 9pm hour of competition.
Russell Howard’s Good News on BBC Three at 9pm was down 0.3m on the previous week with 0.669m.
The most surprising, and possibly damaging for Red Dwarf’s opening, was the Europa League on ITV4 where Liverpool fans laughed at their own comic character with a funny shaped head, Stewart Downing. The Europa League averages 1.4m through the evening but peaked at over 2m during the 9pm hour for the match between Liverpool and Udinese.
ITV1 will be disappointed as their drama Homefront was squeezed by all of the competition to 2.3m at the 9pm hour.
Other channels provided little competition for Red Dwarf. Channel 4 and 5 were both beaten by Dave in the 9pm hour.
The figures should reach a little higher once the Thursday 11:20 repeat are included as well as the repeats set to air next Sunday and Wednesday. Final figures which include DVR viewing should be released in the next couple of weeks though overnights generally provide a better view of success for a commercial TV station.
Dave will be pleased with these figures but it is the retention of viewers week to week that will determine just how successful the series is.
So keep on viewing, and while you are at it, why not show extra support to Series X and pre-order the DVD/Blu-Ray or buy the iTunes Series X pass. Show Dave that the fans are willing to support their big commercial endeavour.
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