Good turnout for an old story ...
Well, I did say that Sherlock was going to be a big hit, but if early overnight viewing figures are anything to go by, the BBC will be more than pleased with the performance of their new three part reinvention of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes tales.
Last night was a great evening all round for the BBC who enjoyed dominance in audience share throughout the prime-time period.
A big hitting celebrity line-up in the shape of film stars Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz gave Top Gear some big numbers (an average of 5.8 million viewers / 22% share) winning the 8pm to 9pm ratings slot, attracting more viewers than Heartbeat on ITV1 (4.6m / 17%), Countryfile (4.2m / 16%) on BBC One and Amish: World’s Squarest Teenagers (2.4m / 9%) on Channel 4.
However, viewers flipped pretty quickly from BBC Two (and elsewhere) to BBC One at 9pm to watch the hour and half glossy crime drama Sherlock – Baker Street is obviously more interesting than Sunset Boulevard to TV viewers these days.
The show, which stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes and Martin Freeman as Dr Watson averaged a very impressive 7 million viewers (28.5% share) in a keenly fought out time slot. ITV1 only managed 3.7m (14.5% share) with Taggart, BBC Two 3.1m (12% share) screening Coast and even Big Brother couldn’t put a dent in the BBC’s bumper day, only pulling in 2.2m (8.5% share) between 9pm and 10pm.
No Hollywood ‘A’ Listers currently planned for the Beeb next week, but they’ll be hoping for another good turn out from Sherlock to keep the pressure on the rest in the Sunday night ratings wars.
