‘Sherlock’ season 4 finale ratings drop — does this impact season 5 chances at all?

Are there fewer people out there watching “Sherlock” than in the past? Maybe, but it seems wrong to look at the live ratings on The BBC and ultimately proclaim this to be so.

Based on the latest numbers that were released by the network Monday, “The Final Problem” ended up drawing a total of 5.9 million viewers during the time in which it was airing. This was down significantly from the more than eight million viewers who chose to check out the show’s recent premiere on New Year’s Day — and that’s a pretty enormous drop. It’s hard to necessarily come up with a reason for this beyond just that many of these viewers could probably check out the episode a little bit later if they were given the opportunity.

For those of you who are saying that the Russian version that leaked online was a major contributing factor, we don’t think so — how many people were going to sit there and watch a version of the show in a language they don’t understand over watching the show in English? Unless you speak Russian, this wasn’t a complete experience for you. For the most part, the internet tends to make a little too big a deal out of some of these sort of ordeals.

In regards now to a potential season 5, rest assured that whatever happened with the finale has little to no impact on that. There is little reason for the BBC to be troubled by lower numbers given that this show will likely gain millions of people in the consolidated figures. This is almost entirely more about the schedules of the cast and the interest by the showrunners in bringing it back. There seems to be interest on everyone’s part in doing more of the show, but it could be another few years until we see it even significantly talked about.

Just remember a few essential things as we enter this long hiatus: There are going to be a lot of publications that lie to you and say that the show’s been renewed (especially in the title) when it’s not. There are going to be other places claiming that they have a “premiere date,” but it’s hard to have that when you don’t have a renewal. Once there is more to report on the subject, we’ll have it for you here. We’d just be surprised if there is anything more to report in terms of a renewal in 2017. There’s no rush, after all.

Why do you think the finale ratings were lower? Share in the comments! (Photo: BBC One.)