Reasonably popular. I get the feeling that BBC America is kinda like a greatest hits album, with a lot of recent popular stuff, and a good smattering of old popular programming.

In the US, we've seen British TV for many years, formerly shown on PBS. That's where most of us saw Doctor Who. (In particular, BBC America only showed Doctor Who for a short while, and then it was only ``Robot'' through ``The Face of Evil'', I believe. I'd been looking forward to Doctor Who, as it hasn't been broadcast in the US for many years, apparently due to Spielberg buying the US rights and then sitting on them.) Anyway, some of us were already familiar with British comedy, so there wasn't too steep a learning curve, if you will. And PBS/BBC and A&E/BBC coproductions of dramas had been happening for years. However, we hadn't seen much pop programming, like Graham Norton, for example. I don't know how well that's doing. The home improvement shows (Trading Spaces, Ground Force, etc.) seem to be doing pretty well, having spawned US equivalents.

I'd guess that it's doing as well as any reasonably sized basic cable channel does, which is, unfortunately, not all that well unless they happen to have a hit orginal series, which is unusual, and doesn't usually affect the rest of their schedule's ratings that much.

Unfortunately, the official ratings organization in the US, Nielsen, doesn't provide ratings free of charge. This has always been very annoying.

Oh, and they do show BBC World News. But it ends up being at 6AM here. They also show a 6PM version, but it's produced in Washington, DC, and is not the exact same thing as in the UK. The 6AM broadcasts are, though, I'm pretty sure.