The Nordic public broadcasters DR, TV2 Danmark and NRK had a rocket start of the year with their respective prime time series Borgen Season 3 (10x52'), Dicte (10x42') and The Half Brother (8x45') that achieved excellent viewing results.
Launched on DR1 on January 1st, the third and last season of the Danish political drama Borgen produced by Camilla Hammerich for DR beat its own record with almost 1.8 million viewers for the first episode, which is 245,000 more than the previous record holder episode, number 17 aired in the autumn. In Borgen Season 3 Birgitte Nyborg (Sidse Babett Knudsen) is no longer Prime Minister but a high paid speaker in the business world. However despite being two and a half years out of the top job her passion for politics is still burning.
Miso Film's new crime series Dicte based on Elsebeth Egholm's novels had the challenge to inaugurate TV2 Danmark's new Monday evening prime time slot on January 7 at 20.00 and hit its target, attracting 1.4 million viewers for a 24.5% rating, 51.6% share and 4.3 audience satisfaction. Dicte's viewing figures were high compared to previous TV2 dramas such as Miso Film's other crime offering Those Who Kill that averaged 860,000 viewers for its first season, or SF Film Production's Rita which had around 842,000 viewers on average.
Starring Iben Hjejle as crime journalist Dicte Svendsen, the series is set in Aarhus unlike most Danish noir serials featuring the Danish capital. TV 4 Sweden will start airing the series on January 28 and TV 2 Norway early May. Dicte was pre-sold to ZDF in Germany and Lumiere in Benelux and ZDF Enterprises handles international sales.
In Norway the highly anticipated historical TV drama The Half Brother (pictured) produced by Monster Film kick started on NRK1 on Sunday January 6 at 20.55 and the two first episodes were watched by over a million people (52% market share), making it the biggest premiere ever for a Norwegian TV drama on the Norwegian public broadcaster according to Kristian Tolonen, NRK analyst. NRK's previous local hit series Blue Sky Blue (Himmelblå) had 923,000 viewers and an overall average of 1,131,000 viewers, while Lillehammer started with 998,000 viewers and continued with an average 1,054,000.
The ambitious NOK67 million family saga spans from 1945 to the 1990s and reunites some of Norway's biggest stars including Agnes Kittelsen and Nicolai Cleve Broch. Per-Olav Sørensen is directing (see our interview click here).
The Half Brother will continue to air every Sunday on NRK1 until February 17. Thirteen territories have pre-bought it including Sweden (SVT), Finland (YLE), Iceland (RUV), Denmark (DR), the US (MHz Network) and Benelux (Lumiere). SF International handles world sales.
The Half Brother and Dicte were supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond.