"Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang", the first episode of Torchwood to premier on BBC2, was watched by 3.7 million viewers, according to overnight figures, with a 14.8% audience share, and coming fourth in its timeslot. That’s a very respectable figure for BBC and should comfortably see the show in the channel‘s top 10 for the week.
For comparison, the Top 5 final figures for BBC2 for the week ending 6 Jan was as follows:
1 THREE MEN IN ANOTHER BOAT (WED) 3.96 million
2 THREE MEN IN ANOTHER BOAT (TUE) 3.80 million
3 THE NATURAL WORLD (FRI) 3.33 million
4 THE WEAKEST LINK (FRI) 3.20 million
5 THE BEST OF TOP GEAR (SUN) 3.09 million
So far this week on BBC2 only Louis Theroux Behind Bars, has scored higher, with 5.5 million on Sunday. Overnight figures are usually lower than final figures, so "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" should end up with a few hundred thousand more (but that's no certainty) hopefully taking it over the 4 million mark. The opening episode of season one, "Everything Changes" pulled in 2.52 million viewers on BBC3 last year, while the BBC2 repeat showing scored 3.03 million (though that figure is an average of the first and second episodes shown in a double bill).
Also to note is that it was fourth in its timeslot: the footie on BBC1, Honest on ITV1 and Grand Designs on Channel 4 all beat it, but none by a huge margin. Honest actually took a big tumble in viewers from the previous week.
So, a good, solid, impressive result, but not a mindblowing figure after all those trailers, though you have to factor in there are multiple repeats for people to choose from and there was a major football match on the other side (yay, Man City!). The real test will be to see if the show retains viewers next week.
SFX readers have also given the new, revitalised a thumbs up. In an SFX Forum poll about the new episode over 70% of voters rated the episode either good or excellent. If that's anything to go by it should keep its audience.
UPDATE The viewing figures for the BBC3 repeat were 247,000 and the Audience Appreciation figure was a very healthy 84 (this figure is out of 100, and the average score is 77), which was just 1% away from what’s regarded as "excellent" by the number crunchers who put these surveys together (Doctor Who usually has an AI figure of around the same).
DON'T FORGET! Vote in SFX's Best Doctor Who Companion Ever survey
