ITV nails Monday with I’m a Celebrity and Coronation Street
Last night saw the television audience once again helplessly drawn towards the star wattage on ITV’s I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! (9pm) as the talent chowed down on some reproductive organs and taught each other the ancient and mythical art of how to tell the time.
The first proper episode – after 11.6 million people tuned in to watch the contestants free fall from a plane on Sunday – saw the group get their game plan on while viewers decided which needy soul had to be broken first.
The second night of jungle activity saw hate figures Joey Essex and Matthew Wright once again asked to man up for the greater good, tasked with a simple bit of testicle nibbling in order to secure food for the camp. 10.3 million people have yet to tire of the recycled format, netting the day’s biggest audience and a 39% share.
There was more ‘observational’ fun at the same time on Channel 4 with Fear of Flying: Caught on Camera at 9pm. Recently the broadcaster has really stepped up its game to put unobtrusive cameras in every corner of British society and turn it into a hour of quality television, with no scenario left unrecorded. Drunken nightclub toilets, the intimate details of a teenager’s school days, the essential goings on of a substandard chicken shop, alcoholics shouting at the TV – Channel 4 has got it all covered.
Last night we were invited to board television’s most stressful flight on record as aerophobia enthusiasts were tasked by producers to film their freak-outs and panic attacks much to the pleasure of fellow passengers and, of course, the TV audience. 705,000 viewers tuned in for an hour of shrieking, panic attacks and an all-round unpleasant time, resulting in a 3% share.
At the same time over on BBC One, the sleuths of Ripper Street (9pm) were facing their biggest problem yet – the mystery of the dissolving audience.
East London must have been a crazy and turbulent place in the 1890s, as Matthew McFayden and his team of stout coppers had to deal with heroin distributing migrants, bog-standard killers and crazed and frothing violent women who were demanding rights.
Last night saw the team delicately deal with the ‘Irish problem’ as an MP lost a battle with a hidden incendiary device planted underneath his bed. The surprisingly sympathetic episode saw Detective Flight go undercover in the Irish community but couldn’t buck the recent trend of the eroding audience.
After series two’s opening episode brought in 5 million viewers a month ago, Ripper Street‘s live audience has been falling, with last night’s slice of Victorian London bringing in 3.3 million viewers.
Over on BBC Two, Gareth Malone was back and this time he was rounding up staff at Sainsbury’s in order to force them to sing and smile unnaturally, all at the same time. The third episode of The Choir: Sing While You Work (9pm) was watched by 2.4 million viewers and a 9% share.
Earlier on in the day, the arsenal of soaps ruled the airwaves, starting with Emmerdale at 7pm on ITV. 7.3 million viewers tuned in for the latest drama but the rural soap was beaten by EastEnders (BBC One, 8pm) which managed an impressive audience of 8 million viewers and a 33% share.
Poor old Coronation Street (ITV) – the show spends the vast majority of the year sitting on the throne that it must get rather used to it. The return of I’m a Celebrity has sent the Weatherfield soap directly to the number two spot, although its audience has remained intact.
The first trip of the week to Weatherfield saw the street’s resident Munchkin from Oz, Simon Barlow do his usual traumatised shtick when Nick Tilsley gave the mini-human a piece of his shattered mind. The gratifying scene helped attract 8.8 million viewers and a 38% share.
Unusually, the audience’s interest didn’t wane while wondering into the second episode, as is traditional with a soap double billing.
Last night’s return trip at 8:30pm did almost as well as the first, with 8.7 million viewers pulled in by the gravity of last night’s highly complex storyline (Peter stared intensely at Tina for most of the episode – soap rules dictate that a drawn-out and emotionally messy affair is clearly imminent).
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