TV Overnights: Strong night of drama secures Tuesday for BBC One
Tuesday night’s TV viewing once again belonged to the BBC, as their arsenal of new prime time drama buried ITV1; unfortunately, the commercial channel decided to defend itself with yet another repeat of Lewis.
Earlier on in the evening ITV1 captured an impressive audience share of 31% with the latest drama from the Yorkshire Dales. 5.8 million viewers watched Emmerdale at 7pm where bad news was awaiting former vicar Ashley. Wife Laurel had to break the news that she’d been courting village bike Marlon Dingle.
The ex-Man of God should have developed a thick enough skin at this stage. Sleeping rough and being branded a social pariah can be character building for those in the right frame of mind. 5.8 million viewers tuned in to see Laurel fail to break the news, bringing in the second biggest audience of the evening.
Straight afterwards on BBC One was EastEnders (7:30pm) which featured more logic from the characters than viewers are used to. Sharon had a moment of clarity and realised that Albert Square mightn’t be the best place to raise a small child. Even more surprising was the fact that Sharon managed to make it all the way to the bus station before the inevitable change of heart.
Just as she allowed herself to dream of another (her 1 millionth) fresh start, Sharon’s mind was changed by an insightful and heartfelt (=irritating) monologue from her son (and handy husband replacement) Dennis Jr. The latest round of everyday over-the-top drama scored 7.3 million viewers, the biggest audience of the day, resulting in a 37% audience share. Hang in there Sharon, that contract will be up soon enough.
Once again, the brave contestants entered the quaint white tent of death for the third episode in the current series of The Great British Bake Off (BBC Two, 8pm). This week the ten survivors were faced with the impossible challenge of redoing Mary Berry’s tasty treacle tart. This was no mean feat and soon some of the bakers were cracking under the pressure.
The baking show was down slightly from last week’s episode, just dipping under the 4 million mark to 3.9 million viewers, and pulled in a share of 17%.
There was a complete change of tone over on BBC One straight afterwards. The bustling, green country gardens were replaced with psychological terror as former Misfits star Robert Sheehan sat in the dock. The Irish star was joined by professional Scouse John Bishop for the third episode of Jimmy McGovern’s Accused (9pm) and was down 1.3 million from the first episode two weeks ago.
4 million viewers tuned in to see the pair as father and son, who had to deal with the death of a close family member that resulted in Sheehan straying to the wrong side of the law. Beforehand Holby City (8pm) brought in a dependable 4.7 million viewers as the UK’s most unprofessional hospital staff had to deal with the latest round of crisis.
A romance that turned sour between people with stupid names helped secure 1.9 million for Channel 5. As The Situation and Danica’s relationship descended in to nastiness, Celebrity Big Brother provided the channel with its biggest hit of the day and attracted an 11 % audience share.
Earlier on ITV1 a two hour repeat of Lewis (8pm) from May this year attracted 2.3 million viewers, with 109,000 of those catching details of bloated academic corpses in ITV1 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.