‘His Dark Materials’ Viewership Slips A Bit More In Week 3, Still Tops ‘The War of the Worlds’ Premiere

The sweeping adaptation of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials continued to lose viewers for BBC One, while Mammoth Screen’s The War Of The World‘s launched with an audience of close to 5M.

His Dark Materials was watched by 5.4M people on Sunday night, which was down on last week’s audience of 5.7M and the debut episode, which was seen by 7.2M viewers, according to overnight BARB figures supplied by overnights.tv.

The Bad Wolf drama’s ratings will improve once catch-up and online viewing is taken into account. Indeed, the first episode’s audience jumped from 7.2M to a final consolidated figure of 9.4M, making it the second-biggest drama launch of 2019 in the UK after Line Of Duty was seen by 12.1M.

Elsewhere on Sunday night, BBC One’s reboot of The War Of The Worlds, starring The Big Short’s Rafe Spall and Poldark’s Eleanor Tomlinson, launched with 4.7M viewers at 9PM.

It could not match the first installment of another Mammoth Screen period drama on BBC One, World On Fire, which premiered with 5M in September. The BBC and PBS will co-produce a second season of the Helen Hunt series.

The War Of The Worlds was beaten in the 9PM slot by ITV’s I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, which returned with 10M viewers and featured Caitlyn Jenner. It was down on last year’s launch of 11.1M, which was a five-year high for the reality show.