Revivals

I still think it's a shame that Porridge got a full revival/sequel off the back of that sitcom season but Goodnight Sweetheart didn't.

The revival of The X Files , short-lived though it was, was better than might have been expected. I'm interested to see what they do with Dexter , given just how despised the (previous) finale was.

Another revival of sorts is Star Trek , having surprised everyone I think by suddenly burping out three new series and now having three or four more in the works.

There is, apparently, another Battlestar Galactica reboot/reimagining in the works as well.

Yes neither Men Behaving Badly or Neighbours were revivals, they just continued on different channels.

Agree - a shame ITV didn't pick that up after the BBC rejected it considering they were working with the creators on Birds of a Feather. Seems like the boat has been missed on that - you'd probably have to pretend that pilot didn't exist to make it work now a few years later.

Was incredibly unfortunate that didn't get picked up after how well recieved it was. Porridge looked like it was probably the cheapest to make out of the 4 pilots that were shown that season (being entirely studio bound, no big names on the cast and the only of the four without a period setting), probably the main reason that's the one that got picked up. Goodnight Sweetheart would probably have got beyond one series if that's the one they picked up instead though.

The revival of Goodnight Sweetheart got about 50% of the viewing figures of the first episode of the revived Birds of a Feather. Just over 4m in overnights despite a lot of hype and promotion. Which probably put both channels off it.
I think it was a show with a loud fanbase but not nearly as loved with the general public.

Was Neighbours ever really big in Australia? I always thought it was basically it’s UK success that was the only reason it existed.

It was big in Australia once it moved in the early days from Channel 7 to 10. Now it’s on 10 Peach in Australia and gets a decent amount of viewers considering it's a spin-off channel, but now it’s bigger in the UK.

I'm sure plenty of shows would kill for 4 million!

4m is flop territory for an expensive heritage scripted show like that. Especially when BOAF got double the overnights and nearly 10m in officials one year before. The fact that no other broadcaster commissioned it was telling.

Not really - 4-5m has been the benchmark for a long time now and BOAF dropped to around 6m after the first couple of episodes then less than 5m for subsequent series.

It really isn't and it added little in catchup either, which showed the lack of interest. 4m for a big brand revival at that time was very poor. New Tricks at the same time was axed on 1m more. Very unlikely it would have sustained 4m either once the initial curiosity waned.
As I said there is a reason why neither ITV or UKTV (Red Dwarf) picked it up.

You’re kinda supporting the argument there though - the number alone means nothing without context. BOAF went from nearly 10m in their publicised reunion to 6m in a few episodes and then slid under 5m. If you start with a much hyped revival special getting “only” 4m, broadcasters would factor in the subsequent suspected steep drop in their decision making.

I still think it should have been given a chance, but what can you do.