TV Viewing Summary w/e 22/02/98

Dishy Dr Doug’s dad died in E.R. this week, meaning that the whole episode was set away from the hospital. 3.45 million people tuned in to see Doug and Mark Green travel down to Mexico to collect the body and have some male bonding along the way. Over recent weeks the once mighty American import has been languishing near the bottom of Channel 4’s top ten list but this week it climbs one place to number seven.

BBC coverage of the Winter Olympics has proved to be a turn off with the viewing public, with no appearances in either BBC1 or BBC2’s own top thirty list. Since the glory days of Torvill and Dean and Eddie the Eagle are behind us, it seems that people aren’t bothered about seeing huge stones being hurled along an icy rink or four men in a tub going down an icy tube.

Stagnation seems to be the name of the game with the top thirty programmes looking much the same as they do each week (Corrie has the top four placings with Monday’s edition getting 17.37m). Meanwhile, the hype surrounding the Material Girl’s first UK television performance in fifteen years managed to push the almost redundant National Lottery Show into the top ten with 12.24 million (surprising how many people tuned in to see her mime).

Television viewing for all channels rose this week on last week’s figures, with an average of 26 hours and 29 minutes being spent sat in front of the tube. Viewing in satellite homes also rose on the previous week’s figures, up to an average of 26 hours and 55 minutes.

Reviewer: Simon Wright

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