8m watch as Advanced Dough sees Bake Off contestants crumble
Last night there was another shock surprise in store for easily-shook fans of The Great British Bake Off (8pm) as a highly popular contestant was given their marching orders after the terrifying ordeal of Advanced Dough week.
The baking competition continued to prove well on its new home on BBC One, expanding to an impressively solid audience week after week, easily overshadowing the first four series on BBC Two.
Yesterday’s second-to-last episode saw Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood turn up the temperature in the twee white tent of middle class dreams as the final five contestants entered the end game.
A little under 8 million viewers tuned in to the dreaded quarter finals and went to sleep dreaming of doughnuts, with the surviving bakers’ latest trials and challenges netting a 35% share and generating the most TV-related tweets of the day.
At the same time on ITV was the third episode of the remake reimagining reboot revival of 70’s favourite Celebrity Squares (8pm), with Warwick Davis stepping into Bob Monkhouse’s oversized shoes.
The series launched two weeks back with 3.3 million viewers but failed to maintain that standard, with last night’s audience falling slightly to 2.4 million viewers. The shining talents of guest stars including Sean from Corrie, a raft of Loose Women panellists and the obligatory cricket person helped secure an 11% share for the channel.
BBC Two presented a new documentary series about the impact of the First World War, with Long Shadow (8pm) bringing in the channels biggest audience of the day with 1.8 million viewers and an 8% share.
Channel’s 4 and 5 both decided to look at the world of property from very different perspectives last night. On Channel 4, perky and positive Sarah Beeny attempted to convince those watching to Double Your House for Half the Money (8pm). 1.2 million viewers and a 5% share tuned in.
Naturally, Channel 5 went down a different route with The Nightmare Neighbour Next Door (8pm) featuring lots of shots of dodgy looking people in various states of undress and confusion shouting at the camera. 1.3 million viewers tuned in for the nightmare scenarios, resulting in a 6% share.
At 9pm, family drama Our Zoo (BBC One) continued to beat the competition in its time slot, with the Chester-set zoological fun bringing in just over 4 million viewers and a 19% share.
There was a complete change of pace over on ITV, as the fourth series of gritty Manchester-based police drama Scott & Bailey (9pm) continued, securing 3.9 million viewers and an 18% share.
Unfortunately BBC Two’s prime time show was also a bit too gritty and uncomfortable but unfortunately very real. 9pm saw This World (9pm) look at the Westgate mall attack in Nairobi, a year after the events.
The difficult images from Terror at the Mall were watched by 1 million viewers and a 5% share.
Alternatively, Channel 4 was offered up some aspirational hope in the form of Grand Designs at 9pm as an architect in Northern Ireland attempted to build a family home out of shipping containers. Much to Kevin’s horror, of course.
The latest example of self-belief, determination and a huge pile of money to fund the dream, took in 2.1 million viewers and a 10% share.
Earlier in the day ITV took the second and third place with its two flagship soaps; Emmerdale (7pm) netted 6 million viewers and a 33% share while Coronation Street (7:30pm) when one better with 6.8 million and a 34% share.
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.
To get all the latest MediaTel Newsline updates follow us on Twitter.