Distant Shores (TV Series) - Broadcast History

Broadcast History

The first series was broadcast in 2005 on ITV. According to one of the show's recurring co-stars, Yvette Rowland, it was "immensely popular", and brought in a viewership of over 6 million. Canadian press releases put the number slightly lower at 5.2 million, but still called the programme "a major hit for Britain's ITV".

Actual ratings data shows both these numbers to be correct, if incomplete. The Broadcasters' Audience Research Board reported that the debut episode of the series was the 20th most popular programme in the United Kingdom for the week ending 9 January 2005, with 7.53 million initial viewers. It was one of only three non-soap operas in the top 20 that week. From this high-water mark, however, the show's audience declined, hovering between 5.2 and 6.2 million viewers. Despite this slip, it usually won its 9pm time slot. In the last two weeks of the run, however, BBC1 managed to win the time slot due to special programming.

A second series was filmed for the next television season, copyrighted 2006. However, it was not aired in the United Kingdom, resulting in the original run of the programme being only six weeks. Rowland has described ITV's failure to broadcast the second series as "a mystery". Davison himself agreed with Rowland's diagnosis in April 2007 when he expressed puzzlement over the shelving of the show, adding, "There's a fair chance it will never be shown in Britain."

Nevertheless, the second series aired outside the UK. In Australia it debuted on Seven Network it was aired on Hallmark Channel in 2009 and repeated again in 2011 on 7TWO. In Canada, it premiered on VisionTV, while in the United States, it was initially syndicated to PBS stations for a two-year period from December 2006 to December 2008.