Ms Valentine told the committee that network dramas like Shetland delivered an audience of about 700,000 in Scotland, and from seven to eight million across the UK.
Meanwhile, River City delivered an average of 200,000 viewers per episode.
The BBC’s corporate affairs director for nations Luke McCullough added: “Every other BBC Scotland drama we make gets more than double that figure as a minimum.”
The series, set in fictional Shieldinch, is filmed on a specially-built set in Dumbarton.
Labour MSP Neil Bibby, who brought forward a motion to save the show, claimed staff were told that the show was ending due to a lease expiring at the filming location.
Mr McCullough denied this and told the committee that the decision was based on editorial reasons.
However he said that RAAC was discovered at the site, adding: “There is no viable option for the BBC to renew that lease based on the state of the site at the moment.”
Mr McCullough said the timing of the decision to end the show next year tied in with the end of the lease.
But he said that if the broadcaster wanted to continue making the show, “we would have found a way of making it”.
