Anchorage will air doc martin series#
Anchorage will air doc martin tv#

Anchorage will air doc martin series#

McNeice recalls going into auditions for the series with low expectations. The show’s popularity and longevity have surprised members of the cast. During the eight-episode run of the new season, the show drew an average audience of 8.4 million and a share of 32 percent, more than doubling ITV’s average rating for the time slot, according to international distributor DRG. In Britain, Doc Martin is the highest-rated Monday night drama airing on the ITV network. They are able to cross genre lines and hold an audience while doing so.” We frequently see this with programs that attract large audiences. One factor, Reed said, is that the show is unique as both a comedy and a drama “and it is successful on both counts.

Anchorage will air doc martin tv#

APT distributes the popular Doc Martin to public TV stations nationwide. Eric Luskin: aprons signed by attendees at the annual Fall Marketplace, held last month in Boston.

McNeice, left, and Absolom accept a special gift from American Public Television V.P. “While drama has become very popular on public TV,” he noted, “growth on this scale is atypical for an acquisition.” And it is attracting audiences: during sweeps, he said, it was the top-ranked acquisition series in 2012-13. “Stations are relying on it as a quality acquisition to help support the primetime schedule,” Reed said. Starting with just over 700 plays on 30 stations that year, it blossomed to more than 11,000 airings in 2010-11 and shot to more than 21,000 plays on some 330 stations last season. “Doc Martin has seen tremendous growth since it first showed up on public television in fall 2007,” said Craig Reed, director of audience analysis at TRAC. For comparison, PBS’s national primetime average household rating is 1.43. 91 for Season 5, according to TRAC Media Services, which analyzes ratings for local stations. 72 season average for Doc Martin’s 2008 debut on public TV, when the shows aired on stations covering less than 13 percent of TV households, to a. And during its fifth season in APT distribution, in 2012-13, its reach had grown to stations broadcasting to nearly 85 percent of U.S. Stateside, the original British series is going gangbusters for local public TV stations, some of which began airing it in 2008-09. In Greece, the show is titled Kliniki Periptosi (“Clinical Cases”) and young women in the village frolic in bikinis in Holland ( Dokter Tinus), there’s a backdrop of tulips and a windmill. But there are distinct cultural variations. Each version shares the same lead character: a promising surgeon who mysteriously develops an aversion to the sight of blood and ends up a general practitioner in his home village, catering to a slew of characters with various odd medical conditions.

It’s a very odd sensation.” A global phenomenonĭoc Martin’ success has spread worldwide, with adaptations now licensed for production in more than 70 countries. “And suddenly I’m in Boston, in a hotel presidential suite, talking to the press about the show. They joked about their easy rapport - “Joe calls me ‘Pops’ on set, so we’re like father and son, it’s true,” McNeice said - and both marveled at the number of Americans who recognized them as Doc Martin characters during their appearance in Boston.Īs Absolom said, “I’m a paper boy from Lewisham,” a working-class borough in southeast London.

One storyline involves the two finally moving apart, with Al leaving the house so Bert can open a bed and breakfast.ĭespite their characters’ challenges in the upcoming season, the two remain as fond of each other in real life as they are onscreen. “It’s quite a dark series, actually,” Absolom said, referring to the new season of eight episodes. You see him get very stressed.” In past series, he’s dabbled in computer maintenance but ended up once again working at his father’s side. “I think for Al, he gets a bit depressed and a bit lost in terms of trying to make a living for himself,” Absolom said of his sweet but listless character.

Ian McNeice, left, plays Bert Large and Joe Absolom portrays his son Al in Doc Martin.