BBC drama The Tourist returned for its second season last night in the lucrative New Year’s Day 9 p.m. GMT (1 p.m. PT) slot to just 2.2M viewers, beaten comfortably by ITV‘s post office drama.
The episode, which peaked with 2.5M, attracted less than half of the audience of the first season’s opener from exactly the same slot two years ago, according to Barb ratings data supplied by overnights.tv. It will likely consolidate much higher as viewers watch on iPlayer over the coming weeks, where all eps are available.
The Jamie Dornan-starrer, which has moved from Australia to Ireland this season and follows a victim of a car crash who wakes up in hospital with amnesia, will launch on Netflix in the U.S. in several weeks and is also co-produced for Australia’s Stan and Germany’s ZDF. Season 1 was co-produced for the Max streamer (then HBO Max). Produced by Fleabag maker Two Brothers Pictures, last night’s ep saw Dornan’s Elliot kidnapped as he headed to Ireland accompanied by Helen (Danielle Macdonald) to find answers about his past.
The Tourist came third in the most-watched shows on the BBC yesterday. It was comfortably beaten by the opener of ITV’s heart-wrenching Mr Bates vs. the Post Office, the Toby Jones-starrer that tells the story of what is deemed the greatest miscarriage of justice in British legal history. Both continue on their respective channels tonight.
Over the Christmas period, the BBC aired an adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Murder is Easy starring Industry’s David Jonsson to 3.7M then 2.8M viewers. Meanwhile, feature drama Men Up, produced by Russell T Davies and telling the story of the invention of viagra, amassed an audience of 1.5M on December 29.
The BBC’s big show launch this week beyond The Tourist is the second season of breakout competition hit The Traitors, which kicks off tomorrow at 9 p.m.