TV Overnights: Coronation Street narrowly beats New Tricks and EastEnders with 8.2m viewers
For two long episodes the Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad have been wandering around solving mysteries as a trio, following Jack’s departure in the series nine opener. This imbalance was stabilised last night as a new member was inducted into the New Tricks (BBC One, 9pm) team.
Retired detective McAndrew ticked all the boxes; he was Scottish, fond of the demon drink and had a chip or two on his shoulder. His ‘haunted face’ was also equally impressive. A three month probation period will follow but his presence did little to dampen the popularity of the dusty detective show. 7.4 million viewers (a 30% share) tuned in for McAndrew’s inauguration, up 6% on last week.
In the 9pm slot on ITV1 was the second part of melodrama, Leaving. Julie is a married woman having a work liaison with a much younger man. Although this sounds exiting, Julie constantly wandered around looking like she was preparing for a great aunt’s funeral. Seriously, if you’re going to have an affair, make sure there’s some fun involved. The middle episode of this laborious series attracted 3.4 million viewers (a 14% share), down slightly from last week’s 3.7 million.
BBC One’s main draw of the night was the usual cheerful visit to those charming EastEnders (8pm). Janine (and her capital) only left Walford a few days ago and already the economic equilibrium has been rocked to the core. Poor Syed won’t get the money for the cleaning products! Michael now has no money to buy 89b! Butcher’s Joints has shut down!
Has EastEnders always been a high-end parable for modern life? The gritty slice of drama, showing life how it really is, just piped past New Tricks to bring in 7.5 million viewers (an average audience share of 30%). On the bright side, Kat was nowhere to be seen.
Which once again left Coronation Street to be crowned the most watched programme of the day, a slightly more popular version of its Southern cousin. Unusually, it was the second episode of the night that attracted the most viewers. The first episode at 7:30pm saw yet more soul searching for Tommy and Tina. 8.2 million viewers watched as Tommy threw as hissy fit and decided to leave Weatherfield forever…
But as we all know soap characters can have a surprising change of heart outside tube stations and especially bus stops. After Tommy had his little moment, he decided not to catch the bus (to the Arndale shopping centre?) after all and didn’t abandon Tina. Even though she wants to carry psycho ex squaddy Gary’s baby. For money. She second episode of the night went out at 8:30pm and attracted 8.23 million viewers, resulting in Monday’s biggest audience.
Fans of Southern gothic tomfoolery rejoiced last night as FX brought us True Blood‘s series five premiere. The episode wasted no time getting into the messy thick of it, picking up exactly where we were left off. Although the coven of witches met a nasty culling last year, the Vampires, Werewolves and Shifters were left fighting it out over the swamps on Bon Temps.
Poor old Sookie Stackhouse has had her fill of Vampire loving and at long last we saw she was ready to get on with her life; until her best friend Tara wondered into the path of a shotgun cartridge and got half her head blown off. Smart decision making has never been Sookie’s strong point and before the episode was out another human had been turned. Crazy as a bag of cats yet somehow more believable than your average visit to EastEnders, the first episode pulled in 143,000 viewers (a 0.9% share), securing FX’s biggest audience of the day.
Afterwards on Channel 4, Dispatches tore the veil off a super-evil variety store in the tantalisingly titled Secrets of Poundland (8pm). Unfortunately there weren’t tiny children being held hostage in sweat shops out back, nor were the cheap items being looted from developing companies. The chain store simply had a simple and clear marketing strategy. None the less, the uncompromising investigation attracted the channel’s biggest audience of the day with 2.3 million viewers.
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.