Channel 4 Reloads IT Crowd For Second Series

Channel 4 has announced a second series of new comedy series, The IT Crowd, capitalising on the show’s strong performance amongst younger audiences, and its growing popularity online.

The show, which is produced for Channel 4 by Talkback Thames, is written by Graham Linehan, co-creator of critically acclaimed Channel 4 comedies Father Ted and Black Books. The series is produced by Ash Atalla, best known as the producer of The Office.

The five episodes broadcast to date have seen the show increasing its audience, with the latest outing, on Friday 24 February, notching up a peak adult audience of 1.7 million – its best performance to date. The show’s average adult audience has been 1.6 million, and 735,000 amongst 16-34 year old viewers.

The series has also been broadcast online, however, with Channel 4 releasing the next episode through its website a week in advance, a first for the broadcaster (see Online Premiere Hints At Channel 4’s VOD Future).

According to figures in today’s Times newspaper, the programme has been downloaded 371,000 times, signaling a strong acceptance of the internet as a broadcast platform for the show.

In comparison, BBC Three’s The Mighty Boosh made its debut online last year, but was downloaded by a comparatively weak 35,000 users (see BBC To Premiere Award Winning Sitcom Online).

The show, which ends its current six-part series tonight, was re-commissioned by Channel 4’s head of comedy, Caroline Leddy. The second series has been extended to eight 30-minute episodes and is likely to air in 2007, the broadcaster said.

In addition to the return of the first series’ main cast, producer Derrin Schlesinger will produce the second series, alongside series producer Ash Atalla.

Channel Four: 020 7396 4444 www.channel4.com