TV Overnights: Coronation Street narrowly beats Sharon’s return on EastEnders
With the 2012 Olympic Games definitely, properly over for the time being, the BBC felt that Monday night was the right time to unleash a plan in an effort to keep the momentum going. After Sunday night’s unprecedented audience for the closing ceremony, the broadcasting corporation unveiled a ploy to continue winning gold in the ratings – and that secret weapon came in the shape of Sharon Rickman (Watts to me and you. Or Mitchell – take your pick).
Continuing the Walford trend of making a badly timed entrance, Sharon stumbled into the square, a blubbering mess in a wedding dress, on the day of Phil and Shirley’s engagement. The man sure knows how to pick the ladies. The first episode of EastEnders at 8pm pulled in an audience of 7.8 million, with a 34% share tuning in to see Sharon’s return after a six year absence – the second biggest audience of the evening.
After being shafted in the schedules for two weeks the nation’s two favourite soaps were back with a bang, both offering a double helping of heightened drama. The second episode of EastEnders went out post watershed (Walford After Dark, anyone?) with Sharon explaining she needed a loan of Phil’s burliness to go back to the wedding she walked out on and pick up the son she left behind. As you do. The later episode attracted a smaller audience, down to 6.7 million viewers. Later, vital pieces of the puzzle regarding Heather’s murder fell into place in Shirley’s head, with a 28% share watching. Tick, tock.
Meanwhile over in Weatherfield a severe kidney infection saw Tracey Barlow behave even more mental than normal. Woman magnet Steve McDonald has been rekindling an old romance with Michelle Connor while Tracey lies in hospital, getting more delirious by the minute and feeling spiritually connected to her soon to be ex-husband. The pedestrian goings-on in Coronation Street (ITV1, 7:30pm) eclipsed Shazza’s return by 38,000 viewers, with a total of 7.8 million viewers (a 38%) tuning in for the first episode, securing the night’s biggest hit for ITV1. The second episode at 8:30pm lost a few viewers totalling at 7.7 million.
In the dark corners of primetime terrestrial television was Big Brother: The Final on Channel 5. As the reality show ground to a halt until the next ‘themed’ version, Luke Anderson was crowned the least most-awful person in the world of reality television. 1.5 million viewers tuned in to see the development chef (?!) say words like ‘acceptance’ and ‘journey’, making up a 6.66% audience share.
Further evidence that the apocalypse is at hand was the success of a repeat of Mrs. Brown’s Boys on BBC One at 9:30pm. Last night’s episode, from series two of the award winning show, promoted insurance fraud, damaging stereotypes and more damaging one liners, securing 4.8 million viewers along the way. The sitcom managed to attract the biggest audience in that time slot, indicating that people are eager for series three, due in February 2013. Maybe the Mayans were off by just one year.
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.