TV Overnights: Coronation Street’s latest midweek meltdown brings in 7.9m for ITV
Wednesday night saw the longest and most ineffective interview ever continue to trundle along – 9 years and counting to find at least one descent employee – as Lord Sugar of the noble house Amstrad tasked his gallant knights to flog more tat to the elderly.
The seventh episode of this year’s series of The Apprentice (BBC One, 9pm) saw the candidates flock to the glamorous locale of Birmingham for the annual Motorhome & Caravan Show.
6.4 million viewers tuned in to see the honourable salesmen and women prove their worth by selling overpriced products to the retired and financially-wary.
The surprise double-firing was watched by a 28% audience share and secured the biggest 9pm audience for the BBC’s flagship channel and was the second most watched show of the day. All this despite every series being indistinguishable, while following the exact same format year in, year out.
Disregarding those confident young things, ITV decided to empower the elderly in Love and Marriage (9pm) an unsettling and unholy hybrid between Modern Family, a weighty drama and Shirley Valentine.
The revolutionary new show was inspired by some new market research that found out some people neglected over 55s were actually still alive and struggling to find suitable prime time viewing.
Very much in the vein of Last Tango in Halifax, Love and Marriage features national treasures (who would struggle to get cast in Hollyoaks) front and centre of the drama. Alison Steadman portrays matriarch Pauline, who’s realised it’s never too late to turn your back on family and seek out a bit of sweaty male company.
And just like this week’s The Apprentice, the show had some success in targeting and neutralising its ageing target audience. The second episode of the suburban drama brought in 3.7 million viewers, down from last week’s 4.6 million, and walked away with a 16% share.
Over on Channel 4, the extras were hamming it up no end in medical drama 24 Hours in A&E (9pm). Chronic illnesses, shattered bones, broken hearts – there was no shortage of stage school performances in the halls of King’s College Hospital.
The ever popular and extremely cost effective show brought in 2 million viewers and an 8% share, resulting in Channel 4’s biggest hit of the day.
Earlier, in the 8pm slot, ITV and BBC One vied for the biggest audience through two different and extreme means.
Watchdog, the television equivalent of curtain twitching, was BBC One’s weapon of choice. With the summer in full swing, last night Anne Robinson decided to infuriate victims viewers about the unjust cruelty they face when they leave the mighty home land. Matt Allwright and Mark Hollins were on their usual pandering duties, emoting widely with tabloid horror.
With their help, Anne managed to get her breeches in a twist about the evils of data roaming charges, which is fair enough really. But their knack of indulging the victim mentality didn’t end there! Together they let loose their paranoid theories about a large scale foreign exchange conspiracy, netting 4.3 million viewers in the process.
The resulting 20% audience share meant that BBC One ruled the airwaves from 8pm onwards.
Which meant All Star Mr & Mrs (ITV, 8pm) failed to put up a winning fight but came very close. Despite the presence of Phillip Schofield, the show about celebrities flogging their home life for exposure, 4.2 million tuned in for the fun and frolics and took a 20% share.
Earlier in the day, Emmerdale (ITV, 7pm) had some fun with alcohol and driving as the youth ran out of control. 6.3 million viewers, the third biggest audience of the day, watched as Robbie and Adam’s booze-fuelled cruise ended in disaster, picking up a 33% share.
Straight up afterwards was the midweek trip to Weatherfield in Coronation Street (ITV, 7:30pm). Wednesday’s episode saw foetus transporter Tina throw a paddy of apocalyptic proportions as she continued down the slippery slope of paternal delusion.
7.9 million viewers watched as Tina vowed to keep the wee baby Jack and was thrown out onto the street as a result. A 38% share meant that the soap was the most watched show of 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.