TV Overnights: Emmerdale trounces EastEnders but BBC One turns Tuesday night around
Last night, the viewing public witnessed a rare scheduling clash, with two top soaps squaring off in the ring at 7:30pm.
ITV one put forward an hour long special of Emmerdale at 7pm which saw Debbie Dingle attempt to mop up some of the mess she’s created over the past week.
Police raids, double crossing and good old fashioned swindling is how Cain’s daughter has passed the time in the UK’s sleepiest village over the past week.
It all came to a head on Monday as the soap went down a path more appropriate to Hunted as Charity Dingle broke in to an office to steal a client list located on a memory stick. An average audience of 7 million viewers tuned in for the entire 60 minutes of intrigue, honey trapping and some infected sheep, netting a 29% share.
The rural soap netted the highest share across all channels for the first half an hour but lost out to EastEnders (BBC One) at 7:30pm. Tuesday’s visit to London’s tattiest market once again focused on Max and Tanya’s exhausting relationship. It was yet another highly emotional night for the masochistic writer’s favourite character, Tanya Cross.
The emotionally broken beautician had almost got through Tuesday without a hitch, all cuddled up in bed with ex-husband but current squeeze Max. But there’s always time to throw in a life changing revelation before bedtime. In EastEnders culture it would be considered rude not to.
Although shouty soap stole away the highest audience share away from Emmerdale, that didn’t mean EastEnders stood triumphant at the end of the night. The second half of ITV’s soap pulled enough regular viewers away from Albert Square to make a difference.
A surprisingly low 6.4 million viewers tuned in to see Tanya have another meltdown, resulting in Max being kicked out of the house. The BBC soap secured a 25% share but just couldn’t stand up against the pull of double Emmerdale.
Later on BBC Two The Great Comic Relief Bake Off (8pm) thundered along with its second episode, which saw a troupe of new hopefuls enter the tent. Fans are lapping up this speed-run through the charitable mini-series, after the comparatively agonising slower pace of the main series.
The audience jumped from 3.6 million to 3.9 million night on night as Warwick Davies and Dragon Lord Duncan Bannatyne had to contend with the creation of iced biscuits. An audience share of 16% were lured into a false sense of security as the contestants went from one disaster to another only to be bombarded by Lorraine Pascale’s downer of a report from Ghana.
ITV didn’t fare so well in the 8pm slot, as a repeat of Celebrity Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Pantomime Special failed to compete with competitive baking. The show really needs to stop before the title gets even more ridiculous.
Even rolling out Denise Welch and David Hasselhoff from the wings wasn’t enough of a draw for most viewers. 2.5 million people watched as Our Hev from EastEnders returned from the grave dressed as a fairy godmother, netting a 10% share.
BBC One pulled in the biggest share at 7:30pm and Holby City continued to hold on with a forceful grip at 8pm. 5 million viewers tuned in to see frosty faced Jac squirm over some bad decisions made the previous night, pulling in a solid 20% share.
In the 9pm prime time slot ITV decided to kill two birds with one stone. Why not get the location scouting for the fourth series of Downton Abbey out of the way while making another series?
Great Houses with Julian Fellowes delivered exactly on its promise as the creator of UK TV’s most recent global phenomenon guided viewers around excessive aristocratic houses, weaving in real life tales of love and (better yet) tragedy. The charismatic 63 year old’s tour was watched by a neatly round 2 million viewers and an 8% share.
Despite ITV’s early triumph in the battles of the soaps, the commercial broadcaster’s weak evening line up afforded BBC One a victory for the rest of the night. Even Channel 4 had a pop. The second series of The Undateables beat Julian’s grand tour as 2.7 million viewers (an 11% share) tuned in to see the unconventional documentary.
While the other channels fought it out BBC One walked away with the prime time slot as Ben Millar’s ‘murders in lovely locations’ detective show walked away with the biggest audience. Last night, the third episode in the second series of Death in Paradise saw DI Poole investigate the deadening of a professional lounger in an exclusive spa.
6.7 million viewers watched as a slew of familiar faces popped up with red herrings attached to their heads. The balmy procedural show netted a 27% share, by far the highest in that time slot.
Over on Channel 4 at 10pm was the second episode of barking, stylish and very yellow conspiracy thriller Utopia. The intensive drama saw its audience fall by 27% week on week but still managed to pull in 753,000 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.