TV Overnights: A night of soap sleaze brings in Thursday’s biggest hits for BBC and ITV
Thursday night’s prime time viewing kicked off with an action-packed hour-long special of Emmerdale (ITV) which saw troubled old dear Edna Birch deal with some embarrassing damp issues.
Elsewhere, Charity Dingle, ever the professional, threw in a spot of sexual intercourse while negotiating her contract with Home Farm overlord Declan Macey. Slipping in the sinful goings on at the earlier time of 6:45pm might have put some people off their tea.
It would seem that an entire hour of rural bed hopping was a bit too much for the fair-weather fans, with ITV’s second most popular soap seeing a dip in viewers. The drama about unsleepy village life saw its last fifteen minutes overlap with London rival EastEnders at 7:30pm, resulting in 1 million viewers jumping ship during that time.
An average audience of 5.9 million viewers stayed tuned for the entire double bill, resulting in a 26% share.
EastEnders (BBC One, 7:30pm) was also negatively affected by the scheduling clash, witnessing a jump of 1.2 million viewers in the fifteen minutes after Emmerdale ended. Last night Kat Moon was once again on hand just to show you how amazing your life is in comparison.
The Walford soap had its fair share of illicit hook ups too as Kat woke up in the bed of friendly neighbourhood sociopath Michael Moon. Well, at least they share the same surname, so that’s handy.
Even more convenient is the fact that Michael is the father of Kat and Alfie’s toddler, Tommy. See? Doesn’t your life seem much better already?
Despite the lower than usual rating, EastEnders still managed to cling on to the biggest audience of Thursday night, with 6 million viewers tuning in to see Kat realise that an angry one night stand might work better by choosing someone outside of Albert Square’s incestuous circle. The latest cockney drama netted a 26% share.
Not only did EastEnders have to compete with its soap rival but also 15 minutes of pre-match commentary for the latest UEFA Europa League Live game (ITV, 7:45pm). Matt Smith guided us through the colourful cast of characters before the match between Liverpool and Zenit St Petersburg.
Brendan Rodgers’ men were taken by surprise as The Hulk netted the game’s first goal 19 minutes into play. How can they compete with a raging monstrosity infused with gamma radiation? Someone on the UEFA board needs to look into the rules a little closer. Because that’s just not fair.
Despite being opposed by superior strength, Liverpool fought back in the form of a 3-1 victory. An average audience of 4.7 million viewers tuned in for the entire coverage, resulting in an even 20% share. Audience interest peaked at just under 6 million viewers in the closing minutes of the game.
At 8pm on BBC One it was time for another visit to the country’s most diverse educational faculty in Waterloo Road. Last night saw the writers tick another box on its routine ‘taboo issues’ checklist.
The troubled Barry family have been adding a bit of life since the show’s real life and fictional relocation to the Netherlands of Scotland, with last night focusing on football-loving Kacey. 3.7 million viewers watched as the teen struggled with gender issues and a unsupportive football team, resulting in a 16% share.
There was little range on offer in the 9pm slot as ITV was wrapping up the Liverpool coverage. BBC One gave us the second part of the supercharged version of Who Do You Think You Are?, Meet the Izzards.
Last night saw Eddie Izzard use the dark magic of DNA voodoo to trace back his lineage on his father’s side. After Wednesday night’s episode reached far back into the dawn of humanity, last night was more focused on tracing the line to the present day.
The same amount of viewers who tuned in the previous night returned to see the comedian stalk people across the world, pretending to be their distant genetic relation. 2.6 million viewers watched as Eddie met up with his father, revealing the massive shock that they may have some Saxon blood in their system. The show once again secured an 11% share.
Over on Channel 4 at 9pm everyone’s favourite Hobbit hole-dweller, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, continued his one man crusade to save the fish. The second episode in his very personal campaign saw Hugh travel to the Antarctic to show us all the dwindling fish stock, capturing 1 million viewers and a 5% share.
At the same time on Film4 was the third instalment of the franchise that somehow managed to make Vampires, the immortal blood thirsty killing machines, look really limp. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, the film that made girlfriends across the world lie to their partners and promise “this is the one where it gets really good” attracted a 3% share and an audience of 582,000 emotionally fragile fans.
Later, BBC Two brought us Charlie Brooker’s Weekly Wipe whose snarky commentary managed to pull in 1.1 million viewers. This was followed by a more sombre digest of recent happenings in Newsnight (10pm). Gavin Esler, the cuddly version of Jeremy Paxman, guided us through recent national issues but could only capture the attention of 381,000 million viewers.
At the same time on BBC One, David Dimbleby had much more success with Question Time (10pm). Broadcasting live in HD glory from St Paul’s Cathedral, the usual array of grim faced politicians locked in 3.1 million viewers, a 24% share and generated the most tweets of all TV shows throughout the day.
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.