‘Ludwig’ Becomes Most-Watched UK Scripted Show Of The Year

BBC and BritBox comedy-drama Ludwig has gone from strength to strength as it becomes the UK’s most-watched scripted launch of the year so far.

The first ep of Season 2, which wrapped last week, has now been watched by an audience of 9.1 million, according to Barb data from overnights.tv.

The BBC was celebrating the milestone this morning and said this places Ludwig ahead of all rival scripted shows across both broadcasters and streamers, placing it ahead of the likes of Prime Video’s The Night Manager Season 2 with 8.7 million and fellow BBC comedy-drama Small Prophets (7.6 million). On the unscripted side, Ludwig cannot match The Traitors from earlier this year, also for the BBC, which was watched by a consolidated audience of a whopping 13.3 million.

Ludwig stars David Mitchell as John Taylor, a reclusive puzzle maker who pretends to be his brother when he goes missing and infiltrates the local police station to investigate, before becoming embroiled in other cases. Mark Brotherhood is creator, Big Talk produces and the show, which has already been recommissioned for a third season plus Christmas special starring David Suchet, also stars 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 ended last Thursday to 1.6 million overnight viewers but catch-up on BBC iPlayer has been where it has amassed serious numbers. The first season broke out at a time when audiences were looking for cozy viewing and was the BBC’s top-rated scripted launch of 2024.