SUPERGIRL flies high in U.S ratings

I reviewed Supergirl in May as part of a summer preview, but just wanted to draw your attention to my archived review today, as the comic-book drama has just premiered on CBS in the U.S (to a whopping 12.9m viewers, making it the most successful new autumn series in the young adult demographic). It did have The Big Bang Theory as a lead-in, of course, which is the No.1 comedy in America, so how episode 2 fares is less certain. But I have a feeling this show's a real winner, and most other critics agree. Supergirl debuts in the UK on Sky1 this Thursday, 29 October @8PM.

AMC aren't letting HALT AND CATCH FIRE halt or catch fire

AMC are sticking by niche drama HALT & CATCH FIRE, about 1980s computer programming, having now renewed the show for a second season. I wasn't a huge fan of the first year, which had some problems, but I like the female characters and the final handful of episodes were an improvement. AMC seem to have faith in it, despite the fact it debuted with 900,000 less viewers than their Revolutionary War drama Turn, and only averaged 1.2 million viewers over its 10 episodes.

HBO renew THE LEFTOVERS, but will the audience soon depart?

It's no surprise that THE LEFTOVERS has been given a second season by HBO, as it's been holding strong in terms of ratings. An average of 1.5 million people are watching every week, which isn't much of a dip on the premiere's high of 1.77m. The numbers also rise when you factor in all the ways people consume television these days (the week's repeats, streaming), with the first two episodes averaged a far more substantial 8 million viewers.

TV Ratings: MAD MEN's season 6 premiere fails to attract Sky Atlantic viewers

Sky Atlantic outbid the BBC for the rights to show Mad Men, and it launched to an unsurprisingly weak 98,000 last season. Now the ratings are in for its sixth season premiere, and that audience has fallen to 58,000. (That's a loss of 40,000 viewers, if maths isn't your strong suit.) I know ratings ultimately don't matter in Sky's case, because they're into the idea of building a brand and a collective reason for people to subscribe to them, but that's a really bad number. Their recent Game of Thrones premiere attracted 700,000 viewers.

What's going on? Only 58,000 people? Admittedly you can't just start watching Mad Men in its sixth season, and its premise and setting only appeals to a certain type of viewer, but it was getting around 355,000 on the BBC between season 1-4. Where have those viewers gone? Do only around 100,000 of them have Sky and almost half have stopped watching? Are people buying the DVD box-sets later on? Has it become a show people download instead? It didn't break into TorrentFreak's Top 10 of 2012, so perhaps not...

I don't know. I have no explanation. Maybe it wasn't promoted as much and 40,000 people just didn't realise it was back? I tend to skip ad breaks these days, so does that seem like a valid theory? (Update: I'm aware there was a streaming issue with SkyGo on Wednesday, but I'm not sure if those online figures would have been added to BARB's overnight ratings.)

TV Ratings: GAME OF THRONES, season 2 premiere (Sky Atlantic)

HBO's Game Of Thrones returned to Sky Atlantic last night, where it attracting 522,000 viewers (peaking at 633,000) in the 9pm hour. To put that in perspective, the first season averaged 365,000.

However, season 2 premiere "The North Remembers" was noticeably down on the 743,000 figure for GoT's very first episode in 2011, suggesting it may have lost approximately 200,000 viewers since then. It'll be interesting to see if season 2 continues to shed viewers, or if the fantasy drama's natural audience number will stabilise around 500,000.

Still, GoT's premiere far outstripped Sky Atlantic's Mad Men from a week ago, which only appealed to a paltry 98,000 viewers—despite far more extensive promotion than GoT received this year. Hardly surprising, I know. The general public are just more interested in big-budget fantasy than character-based '60s drama.

Both show's ratings would undoubtedly be helped if Sky made Atlantic available to the millions of Virgin Media subscribers still angry it's a Sky-exclusive channel. But let's not start that argument again. I just think it's a shame some of America's most popular and beloved TV shows are tucked away on a niche channel. I guess the upside is they're treated brilliantly (lots of expensive promotion and repeats), but does any of that really matter if non-Sky subscribers just can't see any of it?

TV Ratings: MAD MEN, season 5 premiere (Sky Atlantic/AMC)

I've been itching to see how Mad Men performed on Sky Atlantic, ever since the show was poached from BBC4 as one of SkyA's big-name acquisitions. Unsurprisingly, last night's double-bill fifth season premiere only attracted an average of 72,000 viewers.

Most damningly, there was actually a 50% drop in viewership between episodes, going from 98,000 to 45,000. Does this suggest that half the audience were newcomers, who switched off? If so, will SkyA be looking at 50,000 regular viewers in the weeks to come? I know the channel doesn't exist strictly for ratings, more the prestige to attract discerning subscribers who love world-class drama, but that can't really be good news.

As comparison, BBC4's fourth season premiere of Mad Men pulled in 360,000 viewers (and the show was considered low-rated even with those numbers).

It's also interesting to predict that around 300,000 fans of Mad Men just weren't able to see the show's return on SkyA (i.e. they don't have a Sky subscription, which Atlantic's still exclusive to). Will this encourage more piracy online? Or will DVD/Blu-ray sales instead receive a healthy boost from UK stores later this year?

AMC would undoubtedly prefer the latter if Sky are willing to pay them £500,000 per episode of a show that attracts less than 95,000 of their subscribers, ontop of a cut from lucrative disc sales (where a Mad Men box-set can cost British consumers £25-35).

Across the pond, Mad Men lured 3.5m viewers on AMC (a 21% increase on season 4's premiere), making it the show's highest-rated episode ever.

TV Ratings: TERRA NOVA (Sky/Fox)

The two-hour UK premiere of Terra Nova drew an impressive average of 962,000 (part 1) and 722,000 (part 2). Sky will be pleased with those figures (it probably helped that the show only aired 7 days after the States), but how many of the remaining 722,000 will be back next week? Will the premiere's lost 240,000 be catching-up online this week?

Over in the US, Fox's premiere attracted 9.22m last week, which was seen as a disappointment given the show's months of hype, huge expense ($20m for the pilot, $70m for the series overall).

Interestingly, this week's episode "Instinct" only dropped to 8.3m, so it seems the show still has a chance of finding and growing an audience that hasn't abandoned it in droves. Can the writers get a grasp of the characters and prove they have a compelling story to tell before all the inquisitive or patient people bail for good?

TV Ratings: DOCTOR WHO (Series 6 finale) & MERLIN (Series 4 premiere)

It was a big Saturday night for SF/fantasy drama on BBC1. Doctor Who came to the end of its sixth series, with "The Wedding Of River Song" attracting 6.1m viewers (28.3% of the audience)—its best overnight performance since "Let's Kill Hitler" (6.2m). This figure will obviously rise once consolidated figures (repeats, iPlayer viewings) are taken into consideration for the week.

Who's big finale was a great lead-in for the Series 4 premiere of Merlin, "The Darkest Hour", which inherited 5.23m of The Doctor's audience (although that was down 400,000 on Series 3's premiere last year). While the swords and sorcery series isn't expected to beat X Factor in a head-to-head (the ITV singing contest managed 9.66m for the first of the Judge's Houses rounds), it provided a surprisingly robust alternative last year. It makes sense the BBC have once again scheduled the young wizard to coincide with X Factor's live rounds till Christmas. The BBC will be happy if Merlin manages to consistently take a 5-6m bite out of ITV1's audience every Saturday.

TV Ratings: GLEE, season 3 (Sky1/Fox)

Glee made its UK debut on Sky1 last night, having been poached by the satellite broadcaster from E4 earlier this year. The season 3 premiere "The Purple Piano Project" mustered 640,000 viewers at 9pm, which is about half its typical E4 audience.

In some ways this is to be expected, because E4's available on the Freeview platform, and Sky1's a subscription channel less people have access to, but I'm sure Sky would have been expecting closer to 1m for such a high-profile acquisition.

Maybe worldwide Glee fatigue is beginning to take hold, as the premiere's ratings were also down in the US. A few days earlier the show returned on Fox, but only managed 8.91m viewers, beaten by the new Zooey Deschanel-starring sitcom New Girl. Worse, Glee's demographics were down 32% on season 2's premiere to 3.8. Ouch.

When taken with the highly embarrassing flop of the Glee 3D concert movie over the summer, is this the year people finally tire of Glee and decide to turn off the music?

TV Ratings: THE FADES (BBC3) & FRESH MEAT (Channel 4)

BBC3's new supernatural drama The Fades started its six-week run with 732,000 viewers on Wednesday night at 9pm, making it the third most popular free-to-air digital programme on Wednesday night, just behind BBC3's War Of The Worlds (746k) movie and a repeat of Benidorm (850k) on ITV2.

Later at 10pm, Channel 4's new student comedy Fresh Meat (above), from the writers of Peep Show, launched with 1.5m viewers, rising to 1.6m if Channel 4+1's audience is included. This beat Channel 5's Big Brother (1.32m), BBC2's Never Mind The Buzzcocks repeat (1.1m) and Newsnight (600k), but wasn't enough to triumph against BBC1's comedy panel show Ask Rhod Gilbert (1.69m).

But both shows did well considering they're brand new. Word of mouth may help increase ratings in week 2, especially if the majority of the target youth audience are catching up later in the week.

TV Ratings: DOCTOR WHO beaten by ITV gameshow!

I don't usually comment on ratings (beyond the occasional premiere or finale), but I  just had to mention Doctor Who's humbling defeat on Saturday evening by ITV1's long-running gameshow Family Fortunes. Who attracted 5.9m against Fortunes' 6.2m.

Of course, 300,000 viewers isn't much difference in the big scheme of things, and Who will undoubtedly trounce Fortunes when its ratings for "The God Complex" are consolidated across the week (including repeats and iPlayer views), but it still doesn't look good for the BBC. Overnight figures aren't as important as they used to be, and Doctor Who's popularity remains very strong, but the show's still expected to win its timeslot—especially against fairly unremarkable competition like a gameshow.

Who's defeat has again raised concerns that viewers are beginning to lose interest, as the plots have become too complex. I'm a little tired of that argument, because it's all subjective. Some people find Steven Moffat's plots totally baffling and alienating, others enjoy trying to tease apart the mysteries and theorize on developments, while others just sit back and let the visuals and sparkling dialogue compensate for a general lack of understanding.

I'm still of the opinion the show's better when it’s challenging and complex, but I do worry that things are going too far. The River Song storyline was fascinating to begin with, but is beginning to feel very silly and unconvincing. Perhaps the issue with Series 6 has been that the mytharc is really dominating things, and standalone episodes don't get much of a chance to engage people's thinking because we're still chewing on the mysteries that feel more relevant. Still, we had five years of Russell T. Davies comparatively simplistic series-arcs, so maybe it's perfectly reasonable for Moffat to take things many steps beyond?

I just hope his pride in his work doesn't interfere with Moffat admitting (if only in private) that many people can't follow what's happening, and would appreciate less intricate plots, or a mytharc that doesn't feel like it's smothering everything else. (Only "The Doctor's Wife" and "The Girl Who Waited" have been strong enough to completely step out of the shadow cast by River Song and The Silence.)

As we race towards the finale in a fortnight, what do you think? Is the show's narrow defeat by a piffling gameshow proof the audience aren't so keen? Were there other factors on Saturday that led to Family Fortunes winning the hour? Maybe more and more people are happy to watch Who later on iPlayer, so its overnight ratings are weakening? Or was it a particularly fantastic episode of Fortunes, hmmm?

TV Ratings: BREAKING BAD, season 4 (AMC)

The fourth season premiere of Breaking Bad broke a record for the AMC show, with a total of 2.6 million people tuning in for the tense "Box Cutter". This includes 1.5m people in the lucrative 18-49 demographic, and is a massive 30% increase on the third season premiere's numbers. This suggests the show is catching on with more people, thanks to extremely positive word-of-mouth. Breaking Bad is actually one of very few shows that's become more popular with each passing season, too.

TV Ratings: TORCHWOOD: MIRACLE DAY (BBC1)

The UK premiere of Torchwood: Miracle Day lured 4.83m viewers to BBC1 at 9pm last night, down 1m on the premiere of Children Of Earth in 2009. Of course, Children was a world premiere of that particular miniseries, whereas Miracle has been controversially delayed in reaching the UK after Starz aired it in the US last Friday. So it's more than likely the 1m drop-off is partly because of torrent downloads this past week, and the fact this isn't being stripped across the whole week (so the need to watch episode 1 on the day of transmission, or risk falling behind, isn't so strong.)

Over in the US last Friday, Miracle Day's world premiere attracted 819,000 viewers for Starz at 10pm and 687,000 for the 11pm repeat, resulting in a total of 1.51 million viewers. This a fraction below the premiere of Camelot (1.57m), a show that Starz cancelled after one season—but not purely because of ratings and demographics, so this doesn't mean Miracle Day's doomed, too. Anything in the 1.5m range is a big hit for a premium cable channel like Starz.

Incidentally, Channel 4's The Killing was direct competition for Torchwood in the UK last night, and the crime drama remake dropped to 1.5m viewers—losing 670,000 viewers from its two-part premiere. Some of the loss may be attributed to people giving Torchwood preference, with 311k watching The Killing an hour later on Channel 4+1. So the loss of audience for the show probably isn't that bad, when you factor in the presence of a big Thursday night rival.

TV Ratings: THE KILLING (Channel 4)

The US remake of Danish hit The Killing began its UK run on Channel 4 last night at 9pm, with a double-bill that attracted an average of 2.19 million viewers (10.3% of the audience). 231,000 additional viewers were watching on Channel 4+1 from 10pm.

The response to The Killing in the UK is going to be very interesting, seeing as BBC4 broadcast the original show earlier this year. More Brits will be able to compare and contrast than Americans. Of course, the vast majority of people watching this US remake won't have seen the original, but some will also have heard about the American discontent over the season finale. Will any of that impact the show? I don't think so. I think we oversell the power of social media these days, as most "normal" viewers won't be aware of how this remake slowly lost its critical acclaim. My own opinion is well-known here: the show has a fantastic start, a handful of entertaining episodes to follow, but then it runs around in circles for six hours, before ending on an infuriating note.

What do you think? Did you watch The Killing on Channel 4? Have you seen original? If so, how did it measure up? Will you continue to watch this 13-part drama, based on these two episodes, or was it too depressing and relentlessly grim for you?

TV Ratings: FALLING SKIES (FX), season 1 premiere; LUTHER (BBC1), series 2 finale

TNT's post-apocalyptic sci-fi drama Falling Skies received its UK premiere last night on FX at 9pm. It managed a very promising 423,000, with an audience share of 1.3% over its hour. This is way down on FX's ratings for The Walking Dead's launch last year (736k), but Skies received nowhere near the same level of promotion and marketing.

Simultaneously on BBC One, gritty crime thriller Luther came to a conclusion with its fourth episode, managing to entice a year overnight high of 5.74m (24.8% of the audience). It comfortably beat its terrestrial competition, which included ITV1's Sextuplets: The Little Lambs (3.04m) and Channel 4's new series of Undercover Boss (2.59m).

TV Ratings: GAME OF THRONES, season 1 finale (Sky Atlantic & HBO)

The finale of HBO's Game Of Thrones was a ratings winner for Sky Atlantic on Monday night at 9pm, as the medieval fantasy's last episode averaged 667,000 viewers over the hour. This is just below its premiere high of 743,000.

Over in the US, the finale lured a series high of 3 million on Sunday night for HBO (the previous high being 2.72m for episode 8), boosted to 3.9 if you count a repeat. The show has largely maintained around 2.4 million viewers each week. The overall performance of Game Of Thrones has been below HBO's other new drama Boardwalk Empire (which regularly had over 3 million viewers), but it obviously has a narrower appeal than a lavish period gangster drama.

A special overview of Game Of Thrones' first season will be posted here soon, as so many people e-mailed or tweeted me to ask why I haven't been reviewing it every week. Stay tuned.

TV Ratings: THE KENNEDYS (BBC2)

It debuted in the UK on The History Channel some time ago, but controversial US miniseries The Kennedys finally arrived on terrestrial TV last night. BBC2's double-bill from 9 till 10.30pm attracted an impressive average of 2.6 million over its two episodes (2.47m for 9pm, 2.21m for 9.45pm). The BBC HD simulcast also lured 171,000 and 152,000 viewers.

It was a decent showing for a drama that's been heavily criticized (people clearly wanted to see for themselves), but it couldn't defeat a repeat of Miranda on BBC1 (3.51m), and the Lady Gaga special of ITV1's Paul O'Grady (3.38m). But it did entice more viewers than Channel 4's panel show hour of 8 Out Of 10 Cats (1.49m) and King Of... (1.2m), together with Channel 5's terrestrial premiere of US crime drama Castle (1.69m).

TV Ratings: LUTHER, series 2 premiere (BBC1)

BBC1's gritty crime drama Luther returned for a four-part second series last night (reviewed here), attracting an impressive 5.6 million viewers (25.2% of the audience), which matched its premiere's numbers from last summer.

This is particularly good because Luther's first series lost viewers over its six-week run, so perhaps this is a sign audiences have changed their mind about the show? Or are people just willing to give it a second chance? It probably didn't hurt that there was no real competition in the 9pm hour, with Luther easily winning its timeslot against ITV1's Baby Hospital (2.62m), BBC2's The Country House Revealed (1.42m), Channel 4's The Fairy Jobmother (1.26m), and Channel 5's CSI (908k).

Considering the premiere's effective shock-ending, I expect next week's episode to retain the majority of those 5.6m viewers. Ratings tend to slip after much-publicized premiere, but it'll be interesting to see what happens. The number may stabilize, if those catching up on iPlayer this week are inspired to watch episode 2 live next Tuesday. It's not like there are adverts to escape, is it.

If Luther maintains this level of ratings success, I suspect the BBC will soon be asking Idris Elba to return for a third series—provided he can fit it into his busy schedule! The actor's currently in contention to star in Guillermo Del Toro's Pacific Rim movie, amongst other things. It helps that, by all accounts, Elba seems to like mixing American work with British, so I hope he'll make himself available. I'd be happy with occasional feature-length specials, if all else fails.

TV Ratings: GLEE, season 2 finale (E4)

"... start spreading the news, they're leaving E4..."

Glee's second season concluded on E4 last night, achieving an impressive 1.24 million in the ratings (5.1% of the audience). That's actually down 300,000 on season 1's finale, although 391,000 watched the episode on E4+1—so maybe that's where the missing 300k went?

The musical comedy-drama continued to be one of E4's best performing shows this year, regularly breaking through the 1m barrier, making it one of the most popular digital channel shows.

Of course, Glee's finale is a bittersweet swansong for E4, now that Sky have bought the rights to season 3. Sky plan to show new episodes on Sky1 just days after their US premiere on Fox—scheduling E4 had success with in the second-half of season 1, before reverting back to the typical four-month gap for season 2.

It's a gap that shortens over time (as US TV have regular hiatuses, allowing E4 to slowly catch-up), but is still seen as a problem for modern audiences who have the option to download torrents. It doesn't seem to have dented the audience too badly in this case (do we overestimate how many people download shows like Glee?), but you do have to wonder if a next-day UK premiere would have boosted ratings even higher.

TV Ratings: 'Doctor Who' (BBC America)

Alex Kingston as River Song in DOCTOR WHO

The ratings for Doctor Who's series 6 premiere on BBC America are in! "The Impossible Astronaut" is confirmed as the cable channel's highest-rated show ever. 1.28m people tuned into the episode on Saturday evening, which was itself set in America. That's an improvement of 71,000 viewers over series 5's premiere last year.

Naturally, broadcasting the episode the same day as the UK helped matters (by curbing online piracy), but it's perhaps surprising only an extra 71,000 people were added to last year's figures. Maybe the BBC have overestimated the number of Americans willing to download the series online? I wonder if the BBC were imagining there were hundreds of thousands of American fans who wouldn't ordinarily wait for BBC America's broadcast, when in fact most probably do wait for it to be televised. Or download in addition to watching it on US television?

Any thoughts, American readers?