TV Overnights: cummerbands at dawn – Mr Selfridge beats Ripper Street for a second week in a row
In its final weekend before the major rebrand, Coronation Street, Mr. Selfridge and Dancing on Ice all helped ITV1 steer a clear path to victory.
Friday
Before the weekend kicked off in proper fashion, Friday night brought a deluge of soap opera action to get through first. As usual, a trip to the harmonious village of Emmerdale was up first on ITV1 at 7pm. An impressive 7.3 million viewers watched as mini minion of evil Robbie stirred up more trouble for his family, resulting in a 34% share.
ITV1 continued to hold on to the biggest audience share for the next half an hour as the first episode of Coronation Street (7:30pm) pulled in 8.9 million viewers. Serial mistake maker Kylie’s weekend was getting off to a fairly shoddy start – learning that you’re expecting the baby of your husband’s leathery looking older brother is never a good experience to have on your CV. The waitress’ latest dilemma brought in a 39% share and the biggest audience of the entire weekend.
As usual, the second helping of cobbled drama didn’t prove as popular with audiences falling to a still-strong, 8.3 million, resulting in a 33% share. In between the Weatherfield sandwich was the week’s final visit to EastEnders (BBC One, 8pm). As expected, life wasn’t looking less messy for the residents of Albert Square.
8.1 million viewers watched as Denise was chucked out of the B&B after brining on the wrath of half-sister Kim. Being forced to seek solace in the the arms of Ian Beale isn’t a punishment fit for the most vile of soap villains, let alone love-struck Denise. The fifteenth family bust up of the week pulled in a 34% share, stealing the limelight off ITV1 for half an hour.
In BBC One’s 9pm slot was the second part to Thursday’s latest unsolved murder. Enduring glossy noir drama Silent Witness on a Friday night is enough to drive any sane person into the arms of Take Me Out. The show did suffer in its unusual time slot – the concluding part fell from 6 million viewers the previous night to 5.3 million (a 22% share) on Friday.
Over on Channel 5, the house mates of Celebrity Big Brother (9pm) lost former Coronation Street heartthrob (apparently) Sam Robertson to a bout of unpopularity. 2 million viewers watched as a hideous married couple called something like Spealgol conducted cruel tricks from the basement, netting an 8% share.
ITV1 counteracted the grimness of another rotting corpse on BBC One and Channel 5’s vacant celeb fest by offering up good old fashioned scripted comedy. Great Night Out focused on a group of thirty something mates from up north and their long suffering partners. About as sharp as a pair of children’s plastic scissors, the comedy offered up limp stereotypes and unengaging situations.
It doesn’t help that the main cast of characters are exactly the type of people you’d avoid on an average night out, let alone a great one. Regardless, 3.4 million caught up with the copy and paste blokey banter, netting a 14 share of the pie.
Saturday
Saturday got off to a spectacular start with not one but three episode of Stargazing Live on BBC Two at 4pm. There were two obvious problems with this trilogy of repeats. Firstly, this clearly wasn’t live, meaning some of Professor Cox’s ‘excitement’ didn’t translate as well. Secondly, it being the middle of the day, it was fairly unlikely any extremely bored children watching at home could join in. On average each episode pulled in 684,000 viewers, with the final helping peaking with a 5% share.
If stargazing during the middle of the day didn’t tickle your fancy, Channel 4 offered up a gruelling marathon of a different kind. The entire island of Ireland came together and collectively hung their heads in shame as an epic helping of Come Dine With Me: Ireland Special kicked off at 4pm. The antics of the usual array of social misfits kept a steady flow of visitors to Channel 4 during the day, with each of the five epsiodes attracting an average of 1.4 million viewers.
More importantly though was the second episode of celebrity diving competition Splash! on ITV1 at 7pm. This is not to be confused with the 80s film about the naked, stoned and screaming mermaid lost in New York. Last week Twitter reacted in an extremely confused manner, with the collective voice seeming to be taking the light entertainment show a bit too seriously. Jo Brand was once again on hand to judge which celebrity in desperate need of exposure could dive the least badly.
While viewers may have fallen slightly week on week, 5 million dedicated people stayed tuned for the entire hour and a half of Saturday evening silliness and the show remained the most tweeted about programme of the day. An audience share of 22% watched Joey Essex and Caprice fall into water from a height.
Immediately afterwards on the same channel, Paddy McGuinnes and his army of spray tanned Oompa-Loompas helped us forget all our bleak January troubles with a dosage of old fashioned cheek. Take Me Out (ITV1, 8:30pm) saw 400 desperate women pitted against each other in a fight to the death for the love of one man. 4.3 million viewers gawped in horror as the brave men were rolled out into the seething atmosphere of the gladiatorial arena, where gobbiness is a lethal weapon, pulling in a 18% share.
Sunday
The fairly uneventful weekend was saved on the last day by the crowd pleasing vote-off-a-celebrity-format that saved the nation from phone-in withdrawals. Dancing on Ice got under way at 6:15pm on ITV1 for an hour and a half of wholesome flesh baring skating fun. The main show netted the highest audience share for its running time as Anthea Turner and someone from TOWIE called Goodger failed to impress the judges, with 7 million viewers.
The celebrity on ice spectacular had its thunder stolen slightly by the very sobering Antiques Roadshow (8pm) on BBC One afterwards. 5.9 million people watched as members of the public put forth their tacky heirlooms in a desperate bid to escape their humdrum lives, resulting in a 22% share.
This nearly overshadowed Dancing on Ice: The Skate Off on ITV1 at 8:30pm, as a well-known TOWIE personality was sent home in order to contemplate her next career move. The results show, which saw Anthea Turner saved from elimination, failed to capture the highest share in it’s time slot but still managed to drag in 6.3 million viewers.
At 9pm the battle of the period dramas continued for the second week in a row. Victorian crime drama Ripper Street (BBC One) was down on last week’s episode but still captured an audience of 5.1 million viewers and a 22% share.
Over on ITV1, the dapper Mr. Selfridge was also hit by the recession, down 400,000 viewers week on week. Despite this slight drop the historical drama won the highest audience and share for its slot with 6.4 million viewers tuning in for some retail therapy, resulting in a 24% share.
The weekend was wrapped up in the safe and sturdy hands of Liam Neeson. His quite public (and extremely profitable) mid-life crisis (which is seeing him reborn as an action icon) continued apace with Channel 4’s airing of 2011’s Unknown at 9pm.
This latest Neeson euro thriller was set in Berlin and Mad Men’s January Jones played his kidnapped daughter age-appropriate wife. An impressive audience of 2.3 million viewers caught up with the tangled web of intrigue and conspiracy, resulting in channel 4’s biggest hit of the day and a 11% 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.