Considering that the opening part of ‘Arthur’s Bane’ partially clashed with the first live show of this year’s X Factor, this is a particular strong start for the young sorcerer as he begins his fifth series on BBC One.
Channel 4 saw two shows return on Sunday 7th with differing fortunes. The launch of Homeland‘s second season, starring Damian Lewis and Claire Danes, entertained 2.3m (8.9%) people and was only slightly down on the 2.8m that saw the finale of the previous season.
The oddly scheduled Friday Night Dinner (on a Sunday?) fared less well with only 1m (5%) tuning in for the debut instalment of its second run. When you consider Series 1 (shown on a Friday) launched with 2.2m viewers last year these figures will be a massive disappointment for the channel.
Finally, as sure as night follows day, Downton Abbey on ITV1 pulled in over 9 million viewers again this week as 9.6m tuned in to the period drama, helping it to a 36.8% audience share.
> Order the Series 5 Volume 1 DVD of Merlin on Amazon.
Watch the trailer for Series 5 of Merlin…
All data was supplied by Attentional, Digital Spy and The Guardian.
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