Finale of ‘cult’ Ripper Street butchers the 9pm slot
Monday’s evening schedule brought viewers a litter of prime time finales with BBC One’s recently axed Ripper Street (9pm) leading the way. Despite an online petition (because they always seem to work) and some rumblings that the BBC will embrace a partnership with one of them new-fangled subscription VOD companies, a third series of the cult crime romp looks currently dead in the water.
The final episode of the expensive Victorian set show wrapped up last week’s tale of slaughtered slums dwellers and dodgy police officers, resulting in business as usual. Unbeknownst to the writers at the time, last night’s served as a suitable swan song for the series, providing some closure for rapid fans.
The second series suffered considerably in its new Monday night time slot, with the first episode netting 5 million viewers but averaging around 3 million going forward. The series one finale managed to attract 5.1 million viewers in February this year but last night’s audience of 3.7 million wasn’t enough to fight off the BBC’s giant axe of frugality.
An audience share of 17% ensured that Ripper Street went out with some pride intact, by securing the biggest audience in the 9pm time slot.
Over on Channel 4, Liberty of London (9pm) opened its doors for the final time, although thankfully, fans of creepy customer service can calm down – while the short lived show about the extortionate emporium of overpriced tat wrapped up last night, the bawdy boutique remains open in the real, non-TV world.
1.7 million viewers watched as managing directors, senior buyers and floor staff all geared up for Christmas, sharing with the world the reality of the aggressive and uncouth tactics the season of goodwill demands.
The documentary’s roller-coaster journey through the ratings saw the first episode manage 1.6 million and the second fall to 1.1 million, only for last night’s final slice of costly cushions bringing in 1.7 million viewers and an 8% share.
Meanwhile in the murky depths of Channel 5, marine biologist Monty Halls was on his most adventurous-sounding adventure yet! Taking a break from all that silly educational and thoughtful programming on the BBC, Monty has recently been diving head-first in to the choppy waters of commercial television.
Last night’s Monty Halls and the Ghost Ship of Thunder Bay (Channel 5, 9pm) saw the intrepid explorer splash about in the Great Lakes of Michigan for the fourth and final episode, capturing 629,000 viewers and a 3% share.
Unfortunately there was another week left for Gareth Malone and his office disruptions in the penultimate episode of The Choir: Sing While You Work (BBC Two, 9pm). The semi-final saw the remaining choirs attempt their hand at gospel and soul, hoping to remind viewers of the cathartic journey and emotional roller-coaster that was Sister Act.
The nail-biting hour of hallelujahs and empowerment was watched by 2.5 million viewers and an 11% share.
ITV treated viewers to an hour and a half of Amanda Holden attempting to do her ‘solemn’ and ‘reflective’ look. 2.8 million viewers tuned in for A Night of Heroes – The Military Awards (9pm), which saw Amanda, Holly Willoughby and Philip Schofield pander to people with actual important jobs, resulting in a 13% share.
Just beforehand at 8:30pm, BBC One attempted to calm everyone right down with Panorama – The Romanians are Coming? The balanced documentary looked at the figures behind the Daily Mail‘s – and conservative media in general’s – recent scare stories.
A disappointed 3 million viewers tuned in to find out that the programme couldn’t predict the future, leaving everyone in the dark regarding the possible influx of Romanian and Bulgarian immigrants, resulting in a 13% share.
Unsurprisingly for a Monday night, the soaps dominated the top four spots. Emmerdale got the high-drama ball rolling on ITV at 7pm, with 7 million viewers and a 34% share.
After a weekend of sparkly dancing and singing competitions, the first trip of the week to EastEnders (BBC One, 8pm) eased viewers into the grim world of Walford.
Last night’s action saw octogenarian Dot get her pitiable Christmas savings stolen, because the writers thought anything a little grimmer might be a bit too much for a Monday. 7.5 million viewers watched as June Brown was once again forced to cry for money, resulting in a 13% share.
But it was the usual Weatherfield drama on ITV that nabbed the day’s top two spots. 8.7 million viewers watched the first episode of Coronation Street at 7:30pm, with the second helping at 8:30pm bringing in just over 8 million viewers.
Later, former Chandler Bing, Matthew Perry squabbled with newspaper columnist Peter Hitchens over drug policies in Newsnight (BBC Two) at 10:30pm) . Only 517,000 viewers watched Jeremy Paxman watch the heated discussion unfold, netting a 4% share and a peak of 294 tweets per minute.
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).
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