Cameron’s escape brings in 6.9m for ITV’s Emmerdale
Thursday evening brought another clash of the nation’s second best soaps as BBC One’s EastEnders tried to fight off a double Emmerdale onslaught.
Things weren’t looking good for EastEnders – ITV’s rival soap has been racking up the tension for months now as Village Bad Boy ® Cameron was finally brought down by the fuzz. Last night saw the soap’s token psychopathic eye candy escape from police custody with a little help from his friends.
Elsewhere, viewers were probably more gripped to see the aftermath of Chas and Paddy’s sweaty and ungodly love liaison.
6.9 million viewers watched village idiot Marlon’s horrified face as he made the ungodly discovery in the first episode at 7pm (the burgeoning lovers are probably related somehow – the gene pool is somewhat limited in the town formally known as Beckindale), resulting in a 34% share.
Straight afterwards at 7:30pm on BBC One, it was EastEnders’ turn in the ring and fans of mockney shouting were in for a real treat. Thursday’s helping of Walford drama saw Janine and Michael’s nauseatingly unhealthy relationship take a few steps closer to pure masochism.
Despite the appealing nature of seeing Janine Butcher being strangled by her equally conniving ex, the show didn’t have enough pull to defeat the first episode of Emmerdale. 6.5 million viewers tuned in for the violent showdown, netting a 32% share for the channel.
But as we all know, defeat is only temporary. The second visit to the crime ridden rural decay of Emmerdale brought in an audience of 6.3 million viewers, allowing EastEnders to claim victory over one half of its rival’s offering.
Later, in the 9pm slot – which for a change was awash with scripted drama – the victory was a lot more clear cut. ITV debuted its new period drama series Breathless, which focused on a dashing young gynaecologist in the early 60s.
It might basically look like Mad Men on a tighter budget but the affairs, stolen looks and backdoor abortions locked in 3.4 million viewers – a lot broader than Don Draper’s appeal. This show won the biggest audience in the time slot and secured an 16% share.
At the same time, Channel 4 once again gave viewers the chance to sneak into the classroom and have some voyeuristic teenage fun in Educating Yorkshire (9pm). The fly-on-the-classroom wall documentary was Channel 4’s biggest hit of the day with 2.5 million viewers.
Over on BBC Two it was time for the penultimate episode about a notorious ye olde crime gang with a name that sounds as intimidating as a CBeebies game show, Peaky Blinders . 1.5 million viewers watched as the Birmingham gangsters got into a wee bit of trouble with the IRA, resulting in a 7% share.
BBC One reminded everyone that working class people can exist outside of soap operas with new drama Truckers (9pm). The Nottingham based show, which follows a different character’s journey each week, was watched by 2.9 million people and a 14% share.
An hour earlier on the same channel, Waterloo Road dispatched yet another beloved teacher in a quest to pull at some heartstrings. Grantly Budgen’s final lesson secured 3 million viewers and was the most tweeted about show of the evening, generating 4,017 tweets per minute.
You know you’re living in a post-apocalyptic future nightmare scenario when there are not one but three helpings of Hollyoaks on any given night. Channel 4’s bog-standard offering at 6:30pm pulled in 854,000 million viewers, while 567,000 jumped over to E4 at 7pm for a look at the next episode.
At 10pm Hollyoaks Later (Channel 4) killed off another member of its highly disposable cast and managed to attract 414,000 viewers.
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