3.6m watch (surprise) final episode of Law & Order: UK
Wednesday night saw ITV air what could very possibly be the final episode of Law & Order: UK (ITV, 9pm) as the broadcaster of the franchised crime procedural last week announced that the show was to ‘rest’ following lead actor Bradley Walsh’s departure.
The eighth episode of the eighth series (in five years!) was originally meant to air back in April but was pulled from the schedules out of sensitivity, due to the similarity in nature to a tragic real-life incident making the headlines.
Little did they know that the delayed and secluded airing of the unceremonious serious final episode, Repeat to Fade, would possibly be the series’ swan song.
Debuting in February 2009, the localised version of the massive US franchise saw Walsh’s hard-to-commit DS Brooks run through a bevy of partners including Battlestar Galactica‘s Jamie Bamber, EastEnders‘ Paul Nicholls and most recently rapper /comedian Doc Brown.
Originally opening with a promising overnight figure of 6.4 million viewers, the latest run of episodes has seen the audience settle around the 3.7 million mark. Last night’s final case saw Brooks and Hawkins investigate the murder of an innocent young mum in a market and was watched by 3.6 million viewers and an 18% share, bringing the biggest 9pm audience to ITV.
Over on BBC One, it was time for another classic series to wrap up as observational documentary Del Boys & Dealers (9pm) came to an end after four weeks. The last episode about neurotic wheelers and dealers brought back ‘break out star’ Danny from Lancashire as he decided to auction off his whole lot.
Opening up with 3.9 million viewers, the audience had fallen to 2.7 million last week but the final thrilling instalment about those eccentric souls living on the fringes of society netted 3 million viewers and a 15% share.
At the same time on BBC Two, 80s rock shaman Neil Oliver and his team of plucky outdoorsy presenter-types finally got to see some not-so-desolate coastline as they lapped up the bustling fun of the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast.
The fifth episode of Coast Australia (9pm) once again saw smarmy and cocky presenter Brendan Moar find any old excuse to take his top off, while the rest of the team just enjoyed being around other humans for once. 1.7 million viewers tuned in to see the livelier side of Australia’s coast, netting a 9% share.
At the same time One Born Every Minute (9pm) returned for a sixth series on Channel 4 as the horrifying action moved to Southmead Hospital in Bristol. 1.9 million viewers caught up with the latest bout of labour pains, proving to be Channel 4’s most popular show of the day with a 9% share.
Meanwhile, Channel 5 offered up one of those documentaries that makes Channel 4’s recent work seem almost subtle and balanced by comparison. 875,000 tuned in for Football Hooligan and Proud (9pm) which did exactly what it said on the tin, netting a 4% share.
Earlier at 8pm, Watchdog Anne Robinson brought in 3.5 million viewers (a 19% share) to BBC One, while the non-stop adrenaline that is Springwatch 2014 captured BBC Two’s biggest audience of the day with 2.2 million viewers and a 12% share.
In the end though, it was the glamorous faces on All Star Mr & Mrs on ITV that won over the 8pm spot. An audience of 3.9 million viewers tuned in to see desperate couples feign warmth, attempt to bottle it up and sell it to the masses.
The sight of Brian McFadden, David Hasselhoff and their other halves hamming it up in order to be liked resulted in a 21% share.
Earlier in the day, the latest drama in Emmerdale (ITV, 7pm) secured the day’s second biggest audience with 5.6 million viewers tuning in for half an hour of small-town turmoil, netting a 34% share.
But, of course, it was Coronation Street (ITV, 7:30pm) straight afterwards that won over the nation’s attention spans last night as 6.9 million viewers tuned in to see the Windass household implode as a result of some violent drunken tension. Wednesday’s biggest audience and a massive 39% share tuned in to Gary on the receiving end of a punch, which is always worth a watch.
The Social TV Analytics report is a daily leaderboard displaying the latest social TV analytics Twitter data from SecondSync. The table shows the top UK TV shows as they are mentioned on Twitter, which MediaTel has correlated with the BARB overnight programme ratings for those shows (only viewable to BARB subscribers).
Overnight data is available each morning in mediatel.co.uk’s TV Database, with all BARB registered subscribers able to view reports for terrestrial networks and key multi-channel stations. Overnight data supplied by TRP are based on 15 minute slot averages. This may differ from tape checked figures, which are based on a programme’s actual start and end time.
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