TV Overnights: The X Factor provides the weekend’s biggest audience for ITV1
This weekend saw an over-helping of soap action followed by the return of a dependable favourite for ITV1. While The X Factor may have been down on previous series openers, it still attracted a strong audience despite the surprise spot of seasonal weather.
Friday
There wasn’t room to breathe on Friday due to the extreme scheduling of soap action throughout the night. Coronation Street kicked things off at 7:30pm with a christening that, naturally, resulted in a bit of a dramatic confrontation, capturing 7 million viewers. An hour later the audience was a little lower as 6.4 million people watched Tracy readjust to life back on the street, in her own special way.
It was EastEnders that secured the biggest audience of the night, as the seven-episode-week came to an end. Friday saw Sharon finally make it over to the Queen Vic to relieve some happy childhood memories. The first episode of the night at 8pm was watched by 7.4 million viewers. The second episode at 9pm saw Sharon snare Jack with her feminine ways and was watched by a slightly smaller audience of 6.8 million.
The second episode of the Walford soap was up against the highly questionable Corrie Goes to Kenya at 9pm on ITV1. The first in a two part special saw four Coronation Street stars head off to the slums of Mombasa to educate the locals about HIV and drug abuse through the medium of performing arts. Seriously. Eileen, Nick, Jason and Sophie made up the team that tried to save the world through acting but only managed to attract an audience of 1.7 million viewers.
Earlier on BBC One the very first episode of the award winning Miranda (8:30pm) managed to secure 3.5 million viewers, resulting in a 16% audience share.
Saturday
It may have been the hottest day of the year but Saturday night was all about the return of ITV1’s winter saviour, The X Factor (8pm). The show featured the usual array of rubbish singers, convoluted drama and failed auditionees going mental. To keep the format active and fresh the producers have decided to include TOWIE-inspired segments where contestants sit around and chat au naturel, completely unaware of the ten cameras pointing at them. Also on board for a bit of variety was Mel B, who was in a right scary mood.
Despite this huge shake up the show failed to match the attention garnered by previous launch shows, with right minded people everywhere hoping this finally signals the beginning of the end for the most derivative experience in reality television. Only 8 million viewers caught up with the first episode of series nine, attracting an impressive 40% audience share and winning the biggest audience of the weekend.
Earlier, the Simon Cowell produced Red or Black? didn’t live up to expectations either. The Ant and Dec fronted show, which invites viewers to care about the very TV-ready contestants, was down 3 million viewers compared to its debut in September 2011. The 7:15pm episode netted 3.3 million viewers with the latter part of the show securing a bigger 3.7 million viewers.
While audience disinterest may be blamed on the exceptional weather, it was interesting to note that the game show was beaten by the afternoon film on BBC One. Disappointing a generation of fan boys on a level that hasn’t been seen since Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, was the latest adventure of Dr. Henry Walton Jones, Jr. on at 6:30pm. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (yes, the one with aliens) attracted a healthy audience of 4 million viewers, resulting in a 25% audience share.
Sunday
Sunday proved to be a lot quieter than Saturday with most prime time shows on ITV1 struggling to get past the 3 million mark. BBC One had a stronger evening with Britain’s Hidden Heritage (7pm) and Countryfile (8pm) attracting 4 and 5.8 million viewers respectively. Over on ITV1, bonkers gameshows The Chase and The Cube both had special celebrity editions but only managed an audience of 2.6 and 2.9 million.
At 9pm on BBC One was the first part of the much delayed finale to series 15 of Silent Witness. The episode was held back earlier this year due to the similarities between the issues dealt with in the episode and a story that recieved a heavy atention from the press. The delay also allowed the producers to stitch in the departure of Dr Harry Cunningham, something that was decided long after it was originally shot. 5.6 million viewers tuned in to watch the glamorous Dr Nikki deal with the very unglamorous world of child grooming, securing a 25% share and the biggest audience of the day.
Over on ITV1 at 9pm was the first in a three part ‘my best friend might be mental’ thriller, The Last Weekend. The psychological drama starring former Spooks star Rupert Penry-Jones and the young version of Inspector Morse Shaun Evans was watched by 3.1 million viewers, with 191,000 of those watching the action in HD.
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.