Return of Red Dwarf Delivers for Dave

LONDON: The premiere of the new Red Dwarf series on Dave scored a total of 2.66 million viewers, which is being billed as the largest audience ever for a British commission on non-terrestrial TV in the U.K.

Red Dwarf: Back to Earth reunites the cast of the comedy sci-fi cult classic that first ran on BBC Two. Dave’s biggest commission yet and its first foray into scripted comedy renews a franchise that ran for eight seasons on BBC Two. Red Dwarf: Back to Earth is written and directed by Red Dwarf co-creator Doug Naylor and features Chris Barrie as Rimmer, Craig Charles as Lister, Danny John-Jules as Cat and Robert Llewellyn as Kryten.

The premiere episode on Friday night netted 2.29 million viewers, an 11-percent share, while another 374,000 tuned in on Dave’s plus one channel, Dave ja vu. According to Dave, Red Dwarf: Back to Earth scored a higher audience share than BBC Two and Five in the time slot.

The two following episodes on the weekend scored 1.7 million and 1.3 million.

Dave is available on Sky, Virgin Media and Freeview.