
After a nearly three-year wait — not including last year’s one-off special The Abominable Bride — Sherlock’s New Year’s Day return to PBS clocked 3.7 million viewers. That’s a slight slip from Season 3’s opening crowd of 4M, which had set a franchise record – way back in January 2014. PBS, however, drew reporters’ attention to the S4 opening’s 7% ratings gain compared to The Abominable Bride that aired on January 1, 2016.
That’s a departure from the ratings pattern in the UK, where 8.1M watched return of Benedict Cumberbatch for Season 4’s 90-minute starter, but The Six Thatchers, came in down a tick compared with last January’s special and the Season 3 opener.

In the U.S., The Six Thatchers, also garnered more than 500,000 streams inThat’s its first two days – 118% more than the Emmy-winning Abominable Bride during the same time period in 2016. PBS boasted that the broadcast also was the No. 3 most social program across Facebook and Twitter on New Year’s Day, excluding sports and sports-related programming.
The three-episode Season 4 continues with The Lying Detective on at 9 PM Sunday, January 8, and wraps with The Final Problem at 7 PM Sunday, January 15, leading into the series premiere of Victoria at 9 PM.
Sherlock is written and created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, and inspired by the Sherlock Holmes works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Must Read Stories
Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy.