[dfawcus]

> Why not simpler English -- "half of the country has watched it"

I guess as it was aimed at a British audience, and that is not an uncommon way for us to form such sentences.

If you hadn't mentioned it, I'd not even have noticed it, simply parsing it as "half".

[danso]

If this were social media, at least 10 people including me would be replying with the Major Hellstrom Sees Three Fingers meme.