"Sherlock," starring Benedict Cumberbatch, who returns in the Season 4 premiere as detective Sherlock Holmes, is the most viewed program on BBC's on demand service, BBC iPlayer, and no one is surprised.

"The Empty Hearse," the first episode of the third season of "Sherlock," was requested about 3.64 million times in a single week by fans eager to watch the adventures of the world's most infamous consulting detective, Sherlock Holmes. And Holmes won't appear in any fresh episodes of "Sherlock" until next Christmas for a one-episode special. The popularity of the show in online "reruns" hopefully guarantees even more seasons, even if there's plenty of downtime between them. Cumberbatch himslef has said he'd be willing to continue playing Holmes for years to come.

Each episode of the third season of "Sherlock" appears in iPlayer's top 10 most viewed programs for 2014. The second episode, "The Sign of Three," was listed as sixth on the list with about 3.02 million views, and the third episode, "His Last Vow," appeared seventh with about 2.91 million views.

Besides "Sherlock," "Top Gear" dominates the iPlayer list; an episode of "Murdered by My Boyfriend" and an episode of "Outnumbered" also appear on the top 10 list.

BBC announced these figures as they've begun to extend their iPlayer service, which now allows viewers to listen to or watch shows for up to 30 days following a broadcast. In the past, programs were only viewable for seven days following a podcast.

"BBC iPlayer pioneered online viewing. It is recognized as not just the first, but the best service of its type in the world. Extending the catch-up window to 30 days now makes the best value on-demand service even better," said Tony Hall, the BBC director-general.

"Extending the catch up window to 30 days now makes the best value on-demand service even better. We have a fantastic autumn schedule and the public will now have more opportunities to watch the shows they love."

PBS offers fans previews, special features and inside scoops on past episodes of the long-awaited, high-profile series "Sherlock." Also, Season 4 of "Sherlock" will return to PBS Masterpiece in early 2016.

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