Strictly beats The X Factor twice, nets 9.2m for BBC on Sat
For some reason unbeknownst to mere humans, Friday night saw the return of universally-unloved family sitcom Citizen Khan, with a second series launched by BBC One at 9:30pm.
The old school sitcom – a throwback to a time before anything was funny, apparently – dealt with Mr. Khan frantically trying to save his daughter’s education by the cheapest means necessary. The laughs were broad enough to reach 2.9 million viewers and a 14% share.
Only the UK’s Pakistani community might understand the horror the Irish feel every time Mrs Brown’s Boys gets recommissioned by the BBC. Regardless of whether viewers liked it or not, the show generated the most tweets of the day. 10,059 tweets discussed the merits/vented about the show, translating to 576 tweets per minute.
Beforehand, the 46th series of Have I Got News for You (9pm) got underway and showed little signs of stagnation. 5 million viewers tuned in for the extremely long running show, netting a 23% share.
To battle this hour of comedy gold, ITV joined together the two strongest forces in the known light entertainment universe as Piers Morgan’s Life Stories (9pm) took on the (mentally questionable) might of Brian Blessed.
2.7 million viewers watched as Piers – trusted friend to the powerful – smeared lovie praise all over his perma-shouting guest and attempted to disguise it as some noble form of journalism. The PR exercise netted a 13% share.
Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (8pm) returned for its second adventure an hour earlier on Channel 4. After the hard working hype machine tainted audience’s enjoyment of last week’s premiere episode, last Friday saw viewers drop off by nearly 30%.
Now that the curious viewers that tuned in for the opening episode have got their peak at the expanded cinematic universe, even Samuel L Jackson’s angry cameo as S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury couldn’t stop the show’s audience from falling to 1.9 million viewers and an 8% share.
As the sun set on Saturday evening all eyes were on ITV and BBC One’s big players. After a mixed result the first week The X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing graced the same schedule, this weekend brought out a definite winner.
9.2 million viewers tuned in at 6:20pm on BBC One and remained glued to their seats for over two hours of singing and dancing with everyone’s favourite semi recognisable faces. An impressive 42% watched as Claudia Winkleman took on auto cue reading responsibilities from Bruce Forsyth, resulting in the weekend’s biggest audience.
The X Factor at 8pm on ITV didn’t fare quite as well as a simple choosing process was dragged out for over two hours. 8.2 million brave viewers sat through the over emotional sobbing as the contestants were taken to the judges houses, which sounds highly dubious. The usual drama and hysterics captured a 35% share.
Kiddie-friendly Game of Thrones Atlantis (BBC One, 8:30pm) was back for a second episode, providing an out for those that needed to escape the over-abundance of talent competitions. 5 million caught up with Jason as he supplied more Saturday night family fare, netting a 21% share.
Saturday’s results were repeated on Sunday as Strictly Come Dancing: The Results (BBC One, 7:20pm) just pipped past The X Factor (ITV, 7:20pm). 8.2 million people watched as golfer Tony Jacklin was forced back in to retirement, netting a 33% share.
At the exact same time, 8 million viewers caught up with The X Factor sleepover as each judge asked their least favourite houseguest to leave. The second helping of expertly crafted emotional montages of someone crying brought in a 33% share.
Which, in hindsight, was probably getting viewers in the right frame of mind as Downton Abbey (ITV, 9pm) brought its audience back down to earth with a bit of a surprise sucker punch. Fans of costumed drama hoping to get lost in an hour of social faux pas and fashionable mourning were shocked as meek lady’s maid Anna befell a particularly grim fate.
8.8 million shocked fans watched as newcomer Nigel Harman more than ruffled a few feathers and quickly turned from the grand soap’s new love interest into the most reviled character. The uncomfortable turn of events secured a 36% share.
BBC One’s biggest hits of the day were fairly less dramatic as Countryfile (6:30pm) dealt with the launch of its very own calendar. The exciting weekend highlight pulled in 5.9 million viewers while Fiona Bruce and her travelling Antiques Roadshow of historic tat (8pm) secured 5.3 million 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.
The Social TV Analytics report is a daily leaderboard displaying the latest social TV analytics Twitter data from SecondSync. The table shows the top UK TV shows as they are mentioned on Twitter, which MediaTel has correlated with the BARB overnight programme ratings for those shows (only viewable to BARB subscribers).