TV Overnights: The Syndicate’s finale grabs Tuesday night’s jackpot
Last night saw the second series of Kay Mellor’s wish-fulfilment cautionary tale come to a close, with the final episode of The Syndicate walking away with the 9pm slot. For the past six weeks viewers have been watching the tale of five hospital workers who reap the dividends of the ‘Euro Lottery’.
Naturally, as this is from the creator of Children’s Ward, it wasn’t long before all their lives slipped into a horrible nose dive. Tuesday night’s climactic episode focused on oppressed nurse and housewife Mandy, who had flipped out a bit and crippled, drugged, gagged and bound her leering husband.
Last month the opening episode the drama (which is scientifically crafted to make us feel happy about not having £14 million) brought in 5.4 million viewers. Over the next six weeks the audience remained solid, with last night’s finale bringing in 5.5 million and a 24% share.
Meanwhile, most of ITV’s prime time schedule was taken up by tongue twisting semi-final first-leg match of the UEFA Champions League (7:30pm). The match between Bayern Munich and Barcelona kicked off at 7:45pm from Allianz Arena in Germany, as the two teams scrambled for a place in the final.
An average audience of 4 million viewers stayed tuned for the entire coverage, running at 2.5 hours. An audience share of 18% watched on as the home team destroyed Barcelona in a concentrated 4-0 campaign. As usual, the audience peaked (to 5 million viewers) in the final fifteen minutes, as Thomas Müller netted the fourth and final goal.
Sharing the 8pm slot was the end of BBC Two’s little experiment in extreme tweeness as The Great British Sewing Bee was forced to choose a winner. The final episode saw the remaining and jaded contestants looking like they had been put through a Nike internship in Indonesia as they stitched and bled their way to a tense and sweaty climax.
81 year old grandmother Anne was crowned the supreme victor by cuddly May Martin (herself a knitted creation) and superior human being, Patrick Grant. Four weeks ago 2.6 million cautious viewers tuned in to see the ridiculous concept but it appears viewers were hooked.
2.7 million viewers tuned in to see the competition through to its conclusion, netting a 12% share. But this was all in vain, as the sewing rivalry was up against the indestructible might of Holby City (BBC One, 8pm). The latest goings on in the worst NHS hospital in the country secured 4.7 million viewers and a 21% share.
Over on Channel 4 someone saw fit to commission another series of the ‘seriously – make it stop’ horror of Embarrassing Bodies: Live from the Clinic (Channel 4, 8pm), possibly humanity’s lowest point thus far.
The return of the live nightmare (because the standard version wasn’t unnecessary enough) captured 1.3 million lost souls and a 6% share. Viewers were enthralled, with the ‘educational’ show generating 203 tweets per minute.
Earlier, the two evening soaps brought in the first and second largest audiences of the day. Emmerdale was on at 7pm on ITV and life in the village was more reminiscent of The Sopranos than The Archers, as murder and corruption were both essential elements of rural survival.
Just because it was a Thursday, Debbie took her aunt Chas to a nice secluded barn and held her at gunpoint for half an hour, pulling in 6 million viewers and a 32% share.
Over on EastEnders (BBC One, 7:30pm) Bianca’s mini-me (God help us all) Tiffany was in a spot of danger as the Square’s ‘threatening’ gang switched their attention from son Liam to little Tiffany.
6.8 million viewers (a 33% share) watched as she was approached by the kids from an over emoting semi-professional theatre school, who were about as threatening as those super happy kids from Glee.
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.