‘Sherlock’ season 3 returns with big ratings for ‘The Empty Hearse’

More than likely, you saw this coming a mile away. Thanks to fans having a full two years to catch up on “Sherlock” before the premiere of season 3 in the United Kingdom, the ratings were pretty sensational. Not only was “The Empty Hearse” the most-watched edition of the franchise, but it will go down as the most-watched episode of any drama over the course of the entire holiday season, narrowly beating out the “Doctor Who” Christmas Special.

Overall, the 90-minute episode drew around 9.2 million viewers, and also a peak viewership of closer to 9.7 million. This means that despite this being a very large chunk of television to watch at one time, especially without commercials, almost everyone was still just as hooked on it and watched from start to finish. Two years of waiting will do that to you. These numbers are made perhaps even more impressive thanks to the fact that it aired during the week, even if it was a holiday in January 1.

The next two episodes of “Sherlock” season 3 air on a more TV-friendly day in Sunday, but it is not entirely clear if they are going to do as well as this one since they do not have the same level of hype associated with them. There is one other important programming note that you should be aware of: “The Sign of Three,” which you can see a promo for here, is actually going to start airing at 8:30 p.m. local time on Sunday rather than 9:00. So be sure to sit down to your TVs a half hour earlier if you want to see whether or not John Watson’s wedding goes off without a problem.

Of course, we also have a full review of the episode from yesterday, which you can check out at the link here. We’ll have some more “Sherlock” scoop over the next couple of days, so be sure to keep coming back for that.

Photo: BBC One