TV Overnights: Kat’s gigantic, massive reveal pulls in 8.4m viewers for BBC One
Soap drama was in plentiful supply last night as all of the three main shows stepped up the spectacle in the run up to Christmas.
The first of two trips to Emmerdale got the ball rolling at 7pm as Cameron took to the stand for Chas’ murder trial.
Tricky situation, that. How do you convince a jury (and your extremely nosey community) that the woman you’re having an affair with didn’t murder your mortal enemy? Without giving away the fact it was you?
The pressure was all a bit too much for the Dale’s resident murderous bad boy and he held back from revealing all. 6.6 million viewers tuned in to see Cameron hold back on the stand, netting a 32% share.
An hour later, the second episode saw the audience jump up to 7.2 million viewers, as one glorified extra’s faith was sealed. Pointless farmhand character Alex Moss was on hand to witness Cameron’s dark confession. An audience share of 32% watched as even Alex realised his lifespan in the village would most likely be dramatically cut short. Anytime around Christmas day, probably.
However, it was the residents of Albert Square that secured Thursday’s biggest hit. EastEnders (BBC One, 7:30pm) is the seemingly everyday tale of east end folk. The cheeky chappies of E14 don’t concern themselves with murders and cover ups, they are simply content with a spot of festive and harmless adultery.
Last night’s episode arrived like an early Christmas present for long suffering fans of the soap. After a billion months of sneaking around extremely creaky plot points, the mystery of Kat’s horizontal tango partner was finally revealed. If you’re nursing a seasonal hangover – look away now.
Visual images of a sweaty Kat and Derek Branning have been floating around the heads of the 8.4 million viewers that watched the ungodly revelation last night. The episode saw heartbroken Alfie follow his insubordinate wife to her grotty shag nest, kicking down the door when all his suspicions were confirmed, sending out a wave of collective nausea to the nation.
Yes, it was another one of those claustrophobic episodes where two people shouted at each other for half an hour. They’re just one of those couples that love drama – if we all ignore them they’ll just go away. The extremely patient fans of EastEnders secured Thursday’s biggest audience and pulled in a share of 37%.
Things were a little more sedate over on ITV1, as Coronation Street (7:30pm) continued to deal with the cheery little matter of battered boyfriends. Even demoniacally possessed Kirsty realised she had gone a bit too far when she smashed fiancé Tyrone’s arm with a door.
8 million viewers watched as he convinced her he still wanted to marry her, despite the likelihood that she will eventually kill him. The latest drama from Weatherfield pulled in a 32% audience share and provided ITV1 with its biggest hit of the day.
The prime time entertainment on offer later, failed to match the heights set by the soaps. The mini horrors of Young Apprentice (8pm) were whittled down to one. After eight long weeks of the usual array of nonsense tasks, backstabbing, dressing downs and all round precocious unpleasantness, one superior teenager stood tall above her contemptible rivals.
Already suitably named and dressed for a future in corporate gormlessness, Ashleigh Porter-Exley was crowned Lord Sugar’s favourite new youngling. The show hasn’t suffered or soared over the past series, with the finale attracted nearly the same amount of viewers as the first episode. 3.7 million people tuned in to watch a bunch of teenagers act like contrived ****s for the last time this year, netting a 16% share.
In the prime time slot on BBC One was Michael McIntyre’s Christmas Comedy Roadshow (9pm). Surprisingly, not everyone in the country is tired of McIntyre’s floppy haired schtick just yet with 4.3 million actual people tuning in for his tired posh boy foibles, resulting in a 20% share.
In fairness, the smiling goon is basically a compère in these things, there to introduce the usual arrangement of stand-up-comedians-for-hire. Jack Dee, Miranda Hart, Kylie Minogue and even James Corden was let in, all attempting to distract the audience from his observations on modern life, pandering to his social demographic. Stand up belongs in grotty underground clubs, not in stadiums.
All this meant ITV1 had to roll out the really big guns in order to take a dent out of McIntyre’s Avengers-style line up. But when something like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire isn’t flashy enough, what can you do? Simple – you get over-paid creative types to add words like ‘Christmas’, ‘live’ and the magic ingredient ‘celebrity’ in to the mix.
Live Celebrity Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?: Christmas Special (9pm) featured one half of JLS using their fast knowledge in order to help out charities during the holiday season. Suffice to say, there will still be some children freezing to death on UK’s streets this Christmas.
The showbiz extravaganza also featured the jungle Chelsea boy Hugo Something and managed to attract 3.8 million viewers over its hour long running time resulting in a 18% share.
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.