"the harrowing" was watched by 833,000 people, which was 4.7% of the audience. this was a recovery from the series low of the previous week's "the understudy", but was fewer viewers than any of the first four episodes. the average viewing figures for the series were 904,000 people, or 4.9% of the audience, lower than the slot average of 970,000 (5.1% of the audience).