Ludwig Surges to Top Scripted Premiere Audience of the Year in the UK

BBC and BritBox comedy-drama Ludwig continues its impressive run, now ranked as the UK’s most-watched scripted debut of the year.

The opening episode of Season 2, which wrapped filming last week, has drawn 9.1 million viewers, per Barb data sourced from overnights.tv. That puts it ahead of Prime Video’s The Night Manager at 8.7 million and BBC comedy-drama Small Prophets at 7.6 million.

The BBC hailed the figure this morning, noting that Ludwig now leads all rival scripted shows across both broadcasters and streamers. On the unscripted front, it still trails The Traitors, also on the BBC, which pulled a consolidated 13.3 million viewers earlier in the year.

Ludwig stars David Mitchell as John Taylor, a reclusive puzzle maker who impersonates his missing brother and goes undercover at the local police station, only to get pulled into other investigations. Created by Mark Brotherhood and produced by Big Talk, the series has already been renewed for a third season and a Christmas special featuring David Suchet, alongside Anna Maxwell Martin and Izuka Hoyle.

Big Talk boss Kenton Allen said: “Ludwig is a gloriously eccentric detective at the heart of a show that has never played by the usual rules, so to see more than nine million people embrace him is genuinely thrilling. Mark Brotherhood has created that rare thing: a clever, funny, warm-hearted show that audiences seem to have made part of their lives.”

Ludwig Season 2 wrapped on Thursday with 1.6 million overnight viewers, but catch-up viewing on BBC iPlayer has driven the bulk of its audience growth. The first season found its footing during a spell of demand for cozy viewing and was the BBC’s highest-rated scripted show of 2024.

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