BBC One’s Death in Paradise finale proves Tues biggest hit
Tuesday evening’s entertainment kicked off with a clash of the non-Coronation Street soaps, as Emmerdale and EastEnders battled hard for second place in the nation’s hearts.
Not only did ITV’s rural soap (although you’d be forgiven for mistaking it for Capone-era Chicago with all the moirdering and backstabbing about) Emmerdale (7pm) get the head start, as usual, but also beefed up its arsenal with a double-length episode leading to a direct clash with its London rival.
6.2 million viewers tuned in to see the latest victim of small town drama, Gemma Andrews, lie motionless in a coma – the victim of sweet little Belle Dingle’s rage attack. The hour of intense Emmerdale teatime drama successfully managed to overshadow EastEnders at 7:30pm with a 30% share.
It seems that the everyday sort of murder cover-ups and betrayal that BBC One’s flagship soap had to offer was simply too pedestrian for Tuesday’s live audience. Only 5.5 million viewers watched as the Moons, Mitchells and Brannings all got caught up in the latest half an hour slice of grim urban existence, resulting in a 25% share.
ITV’s success was to be short-lived however, as the broadcaster decided to schedule yet another two hour repeat of Midsomer Murders – just for the hell of it. The episode from September 2012 focused on the grungy and saucy underworld of academic astronomy (seriously) after one of their own was murdered by a meteorite (yep).
2.4 million viewers watched as Barnaby and Jones wrestled with yet another ridiculous case, securing an 11% share and ensuring the commercial broadcaster lost out on the 9pm slot.
Over on BBC Two at the same time was Claudia Winkleman and the latest thrilling episode of The Great British Sewing Bee (8pm). More twee than its baking cousin – if you can believe that – the exciting show about competitive knitting has failed to break through to the mainstream, instead sitting contently in the corner stitching quietly with a reliable audience of 2.5 million viewers and a 12% share.
The programme was the sixth most tweeted about show of the day however – 3,739 tweets were sent out throughout the broadcast.
Even more reliable were the Holby City (BBC One, 8pm) die-hards who – as usual – showed up on time in their customary numbers. A standard 4.9 million viewers caught up with the latest foamy portion of sanitised drama, resulting in a 23% share.
At the same time on Channel 4 was Kirstie’s Best of Both Worlds (8pm), in which the crafting goddess continued to venture out into the precarious property landscape without the safety of Phil Spencer.
1.5 million viewers watched as Kirstie Allsopp once again went through the motions, expressing the right amounts of concern and happiness at the signposted moments. Kate and Chris’ search for the perfect family home in Gloucester managed to capture the attention of 7% of all viewers at that time.
A bit later at 9pm, Kris Marshall celebrated the fact he survived his whole first series of Death in Paradise (BBC One) without becoming one of the victims. The third series of the light and breezy tropical show about regular human slaughter started off very strong – 7.1 million viewers watched the opening episode eight weeks ago in which former leading man Ben Miller got the axe (well, it was an ice pick actually).
Viewers have remained consistent throughout the latest run, which introduced Marshall as the new token white man, with 6.8 million viewers watching last night’s case which saw an old flame pop up unexpectedly, resulting in a 31% share.
Due to the earlier soap clash affecting each soap’s rating negatively, the audience for Death in Paradise was enough to make it the most watched show of the day.
At the same time on BBC Two, the alternative channel was once again kneading some educational content into its entertainment mix with the gripping yet informative An Hour to Save Your Life (9pm). 2 million viewers (a 9% share) watched as three separate emergences played out across spilt screens, highlighting just how important those initial decisions are when in an emergency.
Over on Channel 4, Nigella, Anthony and Ludo brought us the penultimate spoonful of The Taste as tensions in the kitchen really heated up and what not. A fairly sturdy audience of 775,000 viewers saw the contestants desperately try to come up with the ultimate taste bud tickle, resulting in a 4% share.
A little bit later, the renowned documentary department at Channel 4 brought us the second episode of insightful and thoughtful programme, Strippers (10pm). The show, about strippers stripping showed viewers the glamorous side of Edinburgh’s damp sex industry, securing 832,000 viewers and a 5% 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.