Xena on Channel 5 - Series Two
Series Two of Xena:Warrior Princess began on Channel 5 on September 12th 1998, showing at 8.05pm. While the first two episodes failed to rate in the top ten, there are several reasons for this. Firstly, Channel 5 had been showing repeats of series one, and getting good ratings, but at the earlier time of 6.55pm. The shift to the later time slot was welcomed by fans hoping for less editing, but inevitably, more casual viewers might have been lost by the switch. Indeed the season opener of Hercules did well while Xena did not. The other factor is that Channel 5 is getting higher ratings for its programmes than a year ago. When series one began, the top programmes were barely getting a million viewers. Now, Channel 5's top programmes receives 2 to 3 million for big films and football.
As this season is progressing, ratings have indeed picked up, with new highs recorded, and the average well up on last series. However, the rise and rise of Channel 5's soap opera and general improvement in ratings combined with the absences of complete viewing figures for some time over the Christmas period meant that XWP didn't make the top ten very regularly.
GOOD NEWS!! There is now a BARB Web Site that Paul put me onto that lists the top 30 programmes so I now have a much fuller list of ratings here! Thanks also to Tim for helping me out.
date |
title |
position |
viewers |
repeats |
| w/e Sept 13 | Orphan of War | number 17 | 0.93 million | 0.91 mill(22/5/99) |
| w/e Sept 20 | Girls Just Wanna Have Fun | number 20 | 0.88 million | |
| w/e Sept 27 | Remember Nothing | number 8 | 1.26 million | 0.99 mill(12/6/99) |
| w/e Oct 4 | Giant Killer | number 9 | 1.17 million | |
| w/e Oct 11 | Return of Callisto | number 18 | 1.01 million | 0.96 mill(10/7/99) |
| w/e Oct 18 | Warrior..Princess..Tramp | number 10 | 1.24 million | 0.93 mill(17/7/99) |
| w/e Oct 23 | Intimate Stranger | number 9 | 1.34 million | 0.89 mill(24/7/99) |
| w/e Nov 1 | Ten Little Warlords | number 9 | 1.36 million | 0.75 mill(7/8/99) |
| w/e Nov 8 | The Xena Scrolls | number 16 | 1.11 million | |
| w/e Nov 15 | Here She Comes..Miss Amphipolis | number 17 | 1.03 million | |
| w/e Nov 22 | Destiny | number 15 | 1.19 million | |
| w/e Nov 29 | The Quest | number 15 | 1.41 million | |
| w/e Dec6 | A Necessary Evil | number 9 | 1.43 million | |
| w/e Dec13 | A Day in the Life | number 12 | 1.45 million | |
| w/e Dec 20 | A Solstice Carol | number 13 | 1.17 million | |
| Dec 24th | For Him the Bell Tolls | not ranked | less than 0.74 mill | |
| Dec 26th | The Execution | number 28 | 0.76 million | |
| w/e Jan 3 | Blind Faith | not ranked | less than 0.87 mill | |
| w/e Jan10 | Ulysses | number 22 | 1.00 million | |
| w/e Jan17 | The Price | number 16 | 1.12 million | |
| w/e Jan 24 | Lost Mariner | number 14 | 1.29million | |
| w/e Jan 31 | A Comedy of Eros | number 16 | 1.28 million |
The episode Girls Just Wanna Have Fun was shown out of order for Channel 5's Fright Night.
The 1.26 million rating for Remember Nothing is an all time high, beating the previous highest 1.25 million for Prometheus.
The 1.43 million for A Necessary Evil is YET ANOTHER NEW record high!
The 1.45 million rating for A Day in the Life was a series high- and it couldn't happen to a nicer episode!