the available british television audience had doubled since "the quatermass experiment" had been shown in 1953, and the viewing figures for "quatermass ii" were accordingly higher. the series gained an audience of 7.9 million viewers for its first three episodes, which rised to 8.3 million for the fourth and fifth and concluded with 9 million. a bbc audience research report commissioned after "quatermass ii" had finished found that 90% of those questioned in the sample had watched at least five episodes of the production.