Dan's Media Digest

TORCHWOOD BACK & LOST GOES SLACK

Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood has been renewed for a second series. The show has been a big hit for BBC 3 after its first episode got 2.4 million viewers (the biggest ever audience for a non-terrestrial drama). Of course, ratings have dipped significantly since the show began, but Torchwood is still outperforming Sky One's Lost...

Sky One paid nearly £1 million per episode for the rights to Lost, poaching it from Channel 4, but its third season hasn't been the runaway success Sky expected. Of course, Lost's transfer to satellite is bound to have cost some non-Sky viewers, while Lost addicts are typically tech-savvy and probably downloaded the series illegally online during its US run.

Lost reaches its sixth episode on Sky One this Sunday, reaching the self-imposed hiatus US viewers are now experiencing. Stateside, Lost's third season continues in February, with Sky likely to resume the series in March. It remains to be seen what impact this 2-month break will have on British viewers used to Channel 4's uninterrupted runs.

Torchwood begins shooting its second season in Spring 2007 for a release in Autumn. Interestingly, Torchwood faces the reverse of Lost's dilemma and is transferring from digital to terrestrial television. Yes, BBC 2 will premiere the second season, with BBC 3 becoming home to the repeats.