【2012-5-23】Sherlock in the US: “It was like the Beatles coming to America”

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2012-05-22/sherlock-in-the-us-it-was-like-the-beatles-coming-to-america

Sherlock in the US: “It was like the Beatles coming to America”
1:50 PM, 22 May 2012

US broadcaster PBS shares the stateside buzz on Benedict Cumberbatch and the “smart, funny, ***y” British show

Series two of Sherlock ended on US network PBS at the weekend, with American audiences watching for the first time as the detective plunged from a hospital roof to his apparent death (only for him to appear unseen, but alive and well, near his graveside at the end of the episode).

And Stateside viewers are now as wrapped up as we were four months ago in trying to answer that burning question - how did he do it?!

Like a number of British shows of recent years (most notably Downton Abbey), Sherlock has really delivered for public service broadcaster PBS (which launched a UK channel showcasing the best of its content in November).

“It’s doing very well for us,” says chief programming executive John Wilson. “It’s smart, it’s funny, it’s ***y - it’s all the things that make for great television."

Audiences agree. The series opener, A Scandal in Belgravia, drew 3.2 million viewers (not counting catch-up), more than doubling PBS’s average prime-time rating. And the buzz surrounding the show was equally huge.

A recent launch event in New York, attended by Sherlock co-creator Steven Moffat and star Benedict Cumberbatch, demonstrated that US fans of the show are as fervently devoted there as they are in Britain. There were 700 seats available - 10,000 people applied for tickets.

"It was our version of the Beatles coming to America!” says Wilson.

And although the screams were loudest when Cumberbatch walked on stage (see the video below), Wilson believes the show’s success in America is a combination of the actor’s talent and stardom, the strength of the original stories and the writing on the show.

“He’s certainly a rising star in America, there’s no doubt,” says Wilson of Cumberbatch. “He’s in the ascendancy in popular culture here - I think a huge amount of [Sherlock’s popularity] is Benedict's appeal – and when you combine that with this wonderfully updated take on the classics of Arthur Conan Doyle, that’s a great combination, and certainly a very strong combination for our audience.”

What about the other big name behind the show? Does co-creator Steven Moffat’s involvement lend weight for a US audience?

“Absolutely,” says Wilson. “That connection to the writer of the modern incarnation of Doctor Who absolutely helps. PBS is the place where American audiences first got their Whovian fix [during the 1970s and 80s].”

BBC America has now laid claim to Doctor Who in the States but with US audiences clamouring for a third series of Sherlock just as they were over here, do PBS viewers have reason to be hopeful?

“My fingers are crossed that our people at Masterpiece [the PBS strand that showcases the cream of British drama] have already secured that and are ready to bring it home,” reveals Wilson. “My one regret is that they’re only *** three episodes at a time.” And that's just one more thing US and UK Sherlock fans can agree on...