How is 11.56million which DA got more than 11.83million which Sherlock got ?

And what about the millions who watched Sherlock on online iPlayer? If youre gonna include the Downton repeat, will you include the iPlayer audiences too?

Take out HD and +1 and to reduce Downton average.

Stop including the Christmas special Sam.

And stop forgetting Sherlock is 3 episodes while Downton is 8 in whatever case.

The Christmas Special shouldn't be included in the series average.

Im just giving the pure statistics. Sherlock statistically speaking is Britain's most watched Drama.

If youre gonna include the +1 audience for DA, what about the online iPlayer audience [about 2m viewers] for Sherlock??

The biggest drama on TV tonight is back. I really can't wait

Why are people so obsessed with ratings? Why does it matter?

WHAT. A. GAME.

Wow. Sky lucked out with this one.

Don't forget Downton gets rpt rating of between 1.5m-2m on Sunday's in the 4pm slot.


Tbh Its not really that important, both are big dramas.

Eloquently put. Totally agree.

Will be a great night for ITV.

It's summed up mine for the past 2 years. No change at all based on last night really.


Cheers. So that's higher than the previous week. Not the case that it's gone down every week then. Neck and neck with last year too.


Source? I thought they'd filmed most if not all of the episodes. Back in October I believe.

This is post #9635 in a thread which is on its 61st part. *

For that reason I think that question is redundant and ridiculous.



* Actually #9368, which sort of further proves my point.

It's going to be interesting seeing its year on year decline this series. There doesnt seem to be as much buzz as usual for tonight's episode. I think some people have got over this "posh soap" [as Julian Fellowes calls it].

Screw +1 for the moment... you have glossed over including a standalone Christmas special in the series average.

Incredible Premier League comeback completed on Sky Sports.

And still City v Chelsea to come. Tasty afternoon for the pay channel.

It won't do a New Tricks though, surely? That's in a league of its own for year-on-year falls right now.

Not much buzz? You're cracking me up today.

It was a feature on the Regional News where I live!

The water bottle incident sparked a huge viral thing and then they turned it into a charity thing.

Wake up Sam.

Itv are much more dependent on Downton Abbey than the BBC are with New Tricks. If New tricks got axed, it would be a little bit noticeable on the schedules but not too much for BBC One. Downton Abbey is part of Itv's Triple Crown programs of Coro/XF/Downton.

I just have a feeling that people will not be as hugely into it this year. Good to see the BBC targetting it more by airing Our Girl against it, which they've been promoting non stop for months since the World Cup and has a track record of decent rating/s.


Let me guess... it was ITV Regional News? They are quite shameless in promoting other Itv programming.

Thanks DMN.

Doctor Who over 7m again unlike some other dramas this season. X Factor with another 10m rating. It always adds more in timeshift than Strictly, which unusually didn't add 1m for the launch show. For Strictly to get 10m in the consolidated ratings the average has to be over 9m. Will it happen?

The return of Downton is a TV event for many which fans will have in their diaries, off the back of record-breaking US numbers this year many in the UK are eagerly excited at home waiting to tune in tonight.


Yes. Can't think of examples of other "shameless promoting" on ITV regional in my area, any examples you can think of to justify your claim? And even though you can't, let's face it, all advertising is good advertising. Downton is sure to do well tonight; indeed ITV will itself across the night.

PS. You're capable of writing ITV properly as seen above (knock me down with a feather!) so why don't you do it consistently like everyone else (or itv)? That's right, you can't answer that question.

I'm really looking forward to Our Girl.

Don't see Downton dropping much though. I expect it will be down but not by a significant amount.

Amazing! Just amazing football!

Downton Abbey got its best ever launch rating last year. So it is statistically likely that tonight's series premiere will be down from 2013's. That will not be good when reported by the newspapers.

Our Girl will pose tougher competition for DA than the last couple of years. As we've seen with DA and its xmas specials, when it faces some half decent competition, it can end up wilting a little bit in the ratings.

Who was it who said the show had 'lost its sparkle' just before 9:32am on the same day last year before we got a figure of 9.5m?

Learn from your mistakes. Even if its down slightly, New Tricks is down over 2m and yet was supposed to be crushing ITV. Samuel you have completely glanced over that!