“It’s a much more competitive market today compared to when season 3 aired in 2015, so we’re very pleased with the linear results and streaming numbers are growing steadily,” said Lars Blomgren, head of Filmlance International that produced the show in Sweden, jointly with Denmark’s Nimbus Film. 

In Sweden 1,395,000 viewers watched the opening episode on SVT1 on Monday January 1st, up from the 967,000 for season 1 and 1,221,000 for season 2, but less than season 3 (1,489,000) that had introduced the new investigating duo consisting of the iconic Saga Norén (Sofia Helin) and her new Danish police partner Henrik Sabroe (Thure Lindhardt).

Comparing to other recent SVT flagship series that premiered on a Monday, the contemporary comedy The Bonus Family (Bonusfamiljen) kick started with 1,233,000 viewers, but the period family saga The Restaurant (Vår tid är nu) had a record 1,488,000 viewers. In Norway, where the latest instalment of The Bridge opened later on NRK1 (21.45), compared to SVT and DR’s 21,00 slot, the first episode locked in more linear viewers than for the previous season: 600,000 against 577,000 on NRK1. In Finland, it had 454,000 viewers against 425,000 on YLE1.

In Denmark (where DR has slightly edited the opening episode as they found it ‘too harsh and explicit’, especially for the younger audience of X Factor, programmed just before The Bridge) episode 1 of season 4 had more modest numbers compared to the previous seasons (740,000 compared to 839,000 for Season 3, 818,000 for season 2 and 876,000 for the opening season 1). However episode 2 locked in more linear viewers (869,000) and the share was also higher than for episode 1 (40% against 32%), which looks promising for the remaining 6 episodes. The closing season of The Bridge was written by Hans Rosenfeldt and Camilla Ahlgren who said: “We’ve been on an amazing journey with Saga Norén and Henrik Sabroe and felt that there were one last thrilling story to tell.“

In season 4, set two years after the last season, the overarching theme is identity. The plots raise the practical problems surrounding false passports and identities, but in examining their own identities and those of the offenders and victims they encounter, the main characters invite viewers to ask themselves existential questions.

Blomgren said: “We are so pleased to have a beautiful ending of the show. We wanted the ‘saga’ to end, but in a way, it continues with the various remake versions.” The Anglo-French version The Tunnel is airing right now in the UK on Sky Atlantic for its third and final season, while a Russian version transplanted between Russia and Estonia is set to air in the spring. “It’s very high quality and way over my expectations,” said Blomgren who supervises the remakes as chairman of Scripted Exchange Endemol Shine Group. More foreign remakes are in the works, including between Germany/Austria and Croatia/Serbia…” the saga goes on!’ concludes Blomgren.

BBC in the UK that gathered around The Bridge season 3 the highest ever viewers for an international series, has scheduled season 4 on BBC2. ZDF Enterprises handles world sales.