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May 25, 2013

Torchwood burning up the UK weekly ratings

by John Scott Lewinski, posted Jul 10th 2009 1:00PM

John Barrowman stars as Captain Jack Harkness in the BBC's Torchwood: Children of Earth.Premiering to an audience of almost 6 million viewers and holding fairly steady all week long, the BBC's "event programming" of Torchwood: "Children of Earth" looks like a success.

Series star John Barrowman griped last week about the BBC producing only a five-episode series for Torchwood's third season. But, the week-long mini-series turned the 2009 appearance of the Doctor Who spinoff into a TV phenomena desperately awaited by its fans.

Torchwood's move to BBC One more than doubled the show's season two ratings, and there's no telling how high those numbers could go for tonight's mini-series finale.

While venturing into new heights of success, "Children of Earth" has a ways to go before it puts any ratings envy into its mother production, Doctor Who. The mini-series topped out at a very healthy 27% viewership share, but Doctor Who premieres and specials boast shares north of 45%.

Stay tuned to TV Squad for reviews and potential spoilers as "Children of Earth" approaches its BBC America U.S. premiere.

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PORSCHE

I can't wait till Torchwood is on BBCA... and when is Robin Hood going to be on?

July 12 2009 at 6:27 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Aberdeen

This series of Torchwood has been utterly amazing, and I completely agree with Sverre. I love the fact that I have no idea where it's going, and cannot wait to watch the final episode tomorrow night.

July 11 2009 at 4:27 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Sverre

I just have to say this is turning out to be among the finest 5 hours of television I have ever seen.

July 10 2009 at 11:09 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Sverre's comment
doorQdotCom

I second that. Well worth watching. People are going to be taking -- and arguing -- about this one for quite a long time.

July 11 2009 at 6:22 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
RobynM

I'm totally chuffed that you guys are covering this extensively. However, I'd like to put in a preemptive request that the posters be extra-careful about putting spoilers below the jump. Some of us are waiting until BBCA shows it, rather than grabbing torrents.

July 10 2009 at 2:16 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to RobynM's comment
Bubba

Too right, they need a spoiler warning thread for those of us who just couldn't wait. That being said, I envy you what you have ahead of you and I can't wait to watch it again on BBC America...

On a related note, I believe that we are moving toward a model of speed, that is, since Major Players in Entertainment can't scare or force anyone into stopping torrents and dl's, the only weapon that they have is speed. All releases of "major" entertainments will be done at the same time globally, so as to maximize revenue and profits... which is exactly what Auntie Beeb should have done in the first place - as was planned originally, I believe.

It's not that everyone - or for that matter, most people - wants to "rip off" content providers, it is just that the human race is designed to have a need to know about events - even minor ones- as quickly as possible. You can't fight millions of years of evolution (or if you prefer, the hand of a higher power in Intelligent Design), so the best thing you can do is to rechannel those inborn drives to your purposes. As the saying goes "You never succeed in the end by beating the cow to make it moo, find out what it wants, and then you know how to make it moo".

July 10 2009 at 3:33 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
mike

I'm not going to spoil it for you but it blows evrything Who/Torchwood out of the water in terms of story and quality. Watch it and get your friends to watch it... its awesome!!

July 10 2009 at 5:15 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply

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