Merlin Season Two Debuts With 5.08 million viewers

News
By published

It’s not a bad figure, but slightly wor𒁏rying when you consider what happened t𒉰o Robin Hood and Primeval, both of which debuted with higher audiences earlier this year

The second season of Merlin debuted on BBC1 on Saturday night with an aud🍷ience viewing figure of 5.08 million, and a general thumbs up from crit𒀰ics and internet forums.

Although in this day and age, 5.08 million is a fairly respectable figure for a drama, it does set alarm bells ringing. The latest season of the BBC’s Robin Hood and ITV1’s Primeval and Demons all kicked off with higher viewer figures earlier this year (5.6 million, 5.3 million and 5.7 million respectively) and all were ultimately cancelled. With TV broadcasters tightening their financial belts, ꦯexpensive, FX-laden dramas need decent viewing figures to justify their existence

However, Hood, Primeval and Demons suffered from disastrous ratings slumps as the series went on. Even as early in the r🐓uns as their second episodes, all three shows saw figures well down on their premieres (4.19 for Hood, 4.37 for Primeval, 4,9 million for Demons). So the real test for Merlin will be next week’s figures.

Hopefully the entertaining first episode will make sure that a similar fall doesn’t happen, and good word of mouth and bad weather would even help 🍰(it was still very sunny at 6.40 on Saturday, so the kids were still outside). Also, the show was number one on its slot, beating ITV’s The Cube, and healthy overseas sales must count for something, surely?

SFX would certainly be sad to see Merlin go the way of the dinosaurs. And Demons. It doe🌠sn’t deserve ꦆthat.

sfx

SFX Magazine is the world's number one sci-fi, fantasy, and horror magazine published by Future PLC. Established in 1995, SFX Magazine prides itself on writing for its fans, welc♒oming geeks, collectors, and aficionados into its readership for over 25 years. Covering films, TV shows, books, comics, games, merch, and more, SFX Magazine is published every month. If you love it, chances are we do too and you'll find it in SFX.