[James2001]

I don't think Brookside was hugely watched in its early days either, so likely many of the viewers who were around when the Rogers came in weren't even watching when the other "Frank" appeared.

Really? That's interesting.

I thought Brookside was one of the launch line-up hits for Channel 4.

I imagine there would have been a lot of people who watched the earlier episodes out of curiosity who then tuned out. That certainly happened with Countdown.

With early Channel 4's income being guaranteed, I imagine low viewing figures weren't the issue they would have been post-1993, so they could stick with shows that weren't rating brilliantly and hope for them to grow... or just entertain the audiences they had. I'm sure I read somewhere that at some points in 83 they were only getting around half a million viewers (or maybe it was a million- still low in the scheme of things, especially by 1983 standards, the same number that got the show axed), though I could be misremembering.