TV Overnights: 9.7m tune in for Coronation Street’s shocking death
Soap fans were in deep shock last night as Wednesday night saw the raging Rovers Return inferno claim its first victim. Much like the Great Tram Crash of ’10, viewers were promised that a number of prominent characters would perish as a result of the ‘gripping’ event.
Coronation Street (ITV, 7:30pm) fans around the country held hands, lit candles and figured out how they would ever move on without a beloved character that had become more like a good personal friend.
The latest tragedy to befall the Street, apart from seriously affecting house prices, pulled in an audience share of 40%. 9.3 million viewers, (down from the 9.7 million that saw the fire begin on Monday) tuned in to see Stella and Sunita saved from the furnace at the last minute.
Not everyone was so lucky. Brave fire fighter, Toni, risked her life in order to save Street slug Karl and paid the ultimate price. You know the one? She’s been treading the cobbles for all of four hours now, so viewer’s will really feel the impact of her shock demise.
On the tragedy scale, the death sits up with there with the Tram Driver (oh – and the random innocent bystander that was mentioned off-hand) as the most ‘meh’ death in the soap’s history.
The long running show attracted Wednesday night’s biggest audience with nothing on offer in the 9pm slot even coming close. It wouldn’t be fair to say who is next to succumb to the poisonous fumes.
But it rhymes with fajita.
RIP Toni Griffiths – we actually hardly knew ye.
Earlier on the same channel, Emmerdale (ITV, 7pm) warmed viewers up with a slightly less hectic half an hour of soap. There were quite a few bombshells as conniving Cameron attempted to reveal Charity’s big secret but no actual explosions, thankfully.
6.8 million viewers tuned in for the latest sheep shearing drama, resulting in a 33% share. This meant the two heaviest hitters of the night fought for Team ITV.
Elsewhere, much further down the digital rabbit hole, was the debut of yet another home grown yuff ‘dramedy’ (uh) on E4. As the street war for youngsters hearts and minds between Channel 4’s teenage channel and BBC Three heats up, young adults seem to have more viewing options to choose from than most other demographics of the nation.
Youngers (E4, 7:30pm) features a trio of young adults living in a south London tower block as they struggle to follow their dreams despite the harsh realities of life. And of course like all other young people these days they are musically gifted.
Although the show has been gathering positive buzz (comparatively speaking) only 350,000 viewers tuned in, generating a 2% share. But then, the target audience are probably all waiting to watch it ‘off the grid’ in catch up. Young people love being different.
At 8pm, the knives (and forks) came out as BBC One and ITV faced off in their weekly culinary battle. The chefs with the rotund heads, John and Gregg, judged another five hopefuls in Masterchef (BBC One). The third episode in the new serious pulled in a surprisingly big audience of 4.9 million and a 23% share.
Meanwhile over on ITV, Food Glorious Food saw poor emaciated Carol Vorderman continue her search for Britain’s best dish. 2.5 million viewers (an 11% share) watched her of the high standards send her task force of four irrelevant judges to Brighton to sniff out some decent grub. How about spotted dick? Bam! Problem solved, series over.
Wednesday’s hour of precious prime time seemed a little stale in comparison to the earlier excitement. BBC One gave us the grim terror porn for the elderly show, Crimewatch (9pm). Despite the sensationalist nature of the show, Kirtsy Young was on hand to dispense some drops of quality amongst the curtain twitching, resulting in 4m million viewers (an 18% share). The long running snitchathon secured the biggest audience in its time slot.
Over on Channel 4 was the deeply unnerving documentary detailing the origin of the world’s grave, over-population issue. One Born Every Minute (9pm) showcased a whole ward of women, who decided to ignore the fact the world is running out of food and went ahead with their plans anyway. 2.2 million viewers tuned in to watch the wailing and general trauma that comes with birthing a new life, locking in a 10% share.
Silly but fun spooky drama Lightfields (ITV, 9pm) reached its penultimate episode last night as bored ghost Lucy continued to bother three different time periods simultaneously. The fictional scares couldn’t compete with the real ones on BBC One, with ITV’s time-spanning spectre show managing only 2.9 million viewers and a 14% 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.