EastEnders takes the top spot for second time this week
Thursday night resulted in yet another brutal murder on BBC One as the seventieth series of Silent Witness (9pm) offered up another sacrificial jobbing-actress for the nation’s collective entertainment.
The forensic detective show – permanently bathed in cold, grey colours – delivered a brand new crime scene for our heroes to get their teeth stuck into while managing to look into the distance, wistfully imagining the latest victim’s hopes and dreams etc.
Last night’s highly innovative and cheerful plot can be summed up with a fair amount of ease; pregnant teenager – pond – suitcase – missing foetus – but at least the newest slice of scientific crime solving threw in some dodgy foreign gangster types to mix things up a bit.
The first part of this series’ penultimate case saw handsome doctors Nikki and Tom slice open a discarded placenta (CLUE!) in order to track down the new abhorrent (probably male) protagonist of the week.
5.2 million viewers got caught up in the latest round of decayed corpse sifting, resulting in the 9pm slot’s biggest audience and a 21% share.
Looking about a million times warmer and more welcoming was Winterwatch (9pm) at the same time on BBC Two.
The fourth and final part of the seasonal slice of wildlife education saw Chris Packham and Michaela Strachan once again hang around an isolated part of woodland in the dark, hoping to meet some exciting new characters. At least there wasn’t an interfered-with teenage girl’s corpse, for that we can be thankful.
1.9 million viewers watched as the team investigated the urban fox breeding season in Brighton (it’s like their Christmas), netting 1.9 million viewers and an 8% share.
Meanwhile, ITV offered up a much brighter proposition as viewers were invited for an hour-long escape to the sunny climes of Benidorm (9pm). This week’s venture in binge drinking and sun burn saw Nathan Barley himself, Nicholas Burns, return to the Spanish resort after a four year absence.
4.8 million viewers tuned in to see him wake up to the aftermath of a messy stag do, resulting in a 20% share for the commercial broadcaster.
Over on Channel 4, The Undateables allowed viewers to catch up with former stars of the show as they embarked on the rollercoaster adventure that is a newly formed relationship. The update attracted 1.9 million viewers, resulting in the channel’s biggest hit of the day and an 8% share.
Meanwhile, Celebrity Big Brother (9pm) continued to be a thing that’s happening on Channel Five, eroding away at the nation’s moral fibre one dry hump at a time. 1.9 million viewers watched as the tension dial was turned up in the house, forcing house mates to do face-to-face evictions, which resulted in an 8% share.
Earlier at 8pm, Stephen Fry continued to marvel at all the little forest creatures in microscopic nature show Hidden Kingdoms (BBC One). The second episode actually improved slightly upon last week’s opener of 3.5 million viewers and took a 16% share.
At the same time on ITV, there were more screeching creatures attempting to survive the day in their own natural habitat. While avian academics may have been disappointed with the misleading subject and title, Birds of a Feather (ITV, 8:30pm) continued to please the general public.
The fourth episode relaunch saw the three comedy relics get some men in their lives, kicking off another round of Chigwell-based ‘hilarity’. The old school revival’s success has delighted many viewers who were looking for a broader sort of comedy, but the overnight figures have been in steady decline for the last three weeks.
It was only with last night’s audience that bucked this trend. Opening up with 7.5 million viewers, last week saw viewers slip to 5.9 million, only to receive a boost in popularity last night.
6.3 million people tuned in for sultry and sexy septuagenarian, Doreen’s latest disastrous romantic affair, translating to a 27% share.
Earlier in the day Emmerdale (ITV) gave viewers two episodes to get caught up in, with a little over 7 million viewers tuning infor both. However, it was the earlier 7pm helping that proved to be slightly more popular.
The real soap story was happening over on BBC One, scheduled in-between the Yorkshire-based action. For the second time this week, lil’ ol’ EastEnders (7:30pm) managed to walk away with the day’s biggest audience.
Considering the giant ball of emotional trauma that was Coronation Street this week, the residents of Walford’s problems were positively jovial in comparison. The 2014 addition of the happy-go-lucky Carter clan has certainly worked in EastEnders‘ favour so far, once again taking centre stage last night.
Even the sight of Kat’s baby buggy getting hit by a speeding car and the fact she’s probably selling dog meat to her neighbours couldn’t sour the fact that this wasn’t Corrie. As a result, the 29 year old show brought in 7.4 million viewers and a 34% share.
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. Overnight data supplied by TRP are based on 15 minute slot averages. This may differ from tape checked figures, which are based on a programme’s actual start and end time.