ITV’s The Widower continues to overshadow BBC One’s Silk
Monday night saw recently-cancelled Silk‘s (BBC One, 9pm) once-healthy audience continue to slowly erode as the legal drama struggled to keep up with ITV’s latest drama offering.
The second-to-last ever episode saw headstrong, independent, single barrister TM Martha Costello (Maxine Peake) once again get herself tangled up in a sticky professional web as her career and personal life clashed (as they are often fond of doing).
3.8 million viewers tuned in to watch Martha represent an ex-lover who, luck would have it, was looking fairly guilty of murder. An audience share of 19% watched as the QCs were collectively unaware of their impending termination, instead cutting loose from the court rooms with a spell of old fashioned bare-knuckle boxing.
While this was only a small fall on last week’s 3.9 million viewers, the gap is even larger when compared to series three’s opening episode, which brought in in 4.7 million viewers back in February.
That, coupled with the fact that the second series of the generally well received show easily brought in an average audience of 5.6 million viewers back in 2012, and you have to wonder what exactly is going on.
Could it be that viewers (even dedicated viewers) are forgoing watching new episodes live on TV when they can watch a shorter series garnering a lot of attention and proving a little more buzz-worthy?
Speaking of which – it was the second episode of ITV’s period thriller The Widower that secured the 9pm slot as Reece Shearsmith (him with the rogues gallery of truly, deep-down disturbing TV characters) downed his 80s casual wear and planned to off a second wife.
The troublingly true story of a man with a compulsive fondness for life insurance pay-outs saw Shearsmith’s widower move to New Zealand following the suspicious death of his wife Sheridan Smith.
5 million viewers tuned in last week to see the first marriage end fatally, with last night’s failed murder plot increasing the audience to 5.2 million viewers. A 22% share ensured that the halfway point of the three-part drama was the most watched programme in the prestigious 9pm slot.
The tension also propelled viewers to take to Twitter to let off some steam, with The Widower becoming the fifth most tweeted about show of the day.
Over on BBC Two, it was time for another trip to the bloody past with Britain’s wackiest family, The Plantagenets (9pm). The second episode of the history programme saw Professor Robert Bartlett continue to delve into the nastiest of historic details, making Game of Thrones look about as harsh as Neighbours.
One part House Lannister, the other House Targaryen, The Plantagenets were the longest ruling royal dynasty and liked their fair share of fire and blood. Last night, 1.6 million viewers tuned in to find out just what parts were sliced off Simon de Montfort’s corpse, resulting in many dangly bits being paraded around the 13th century countryside and a 7% share.
At the same time, Channel 4 couldn’t stop popping them out as the fifth series of One Born Every Minute (9pm) continued. You should know how this goes by now – screaming, tearing, blood and lots of bodily fluids usually result in a healthy, happy baby by the time the hour is up.
Last night 1.6 million viewers tuned in for a little reminder of the stark horror of nature, resulting in a 7% share.
Meanwhile Channel 5 continued to delve into cheap and miserable programming with My Spiral into Debt Hell (9pm), its latest soul destroying and exploitative documentary, with 837,000 viewers tuning in.
Over on BBC Three, the country’s youths got a taste for American justice with the second part of Life and Death Row (9pm). 910,000 viewers tuned in to see the show follow a man from Georgia accused of murdering eight members of his family, securing a 4% share.
Naturally, the young people took to Twitter to voice their opinions with Life and Death Row becoming the second most tweeted about show of the day. In total, the programme generated 10,756 tweets, representing 12 tweets for every 1,000 viewers.
A little earlier – and in a completely different universe – Mary Berry was busy faffing about her kitchen preparing for a right old knees-up. The fourth episode of Mary Berry Cooks (8:30pm) saw the culinary legend guide viewers through the trials and tribulations of cooking for a crowd.
2.7 million viewers gobbled down Mary’s freshly ground nuggets of wisdom, securing a 12% share.
Earlier at 8pm, EastEnders (BBC One) was dealing with the aftermath of Janine’s latest murder trial. The London soap managed to grab the third biggest audience of the night as 7.2 million viewers watched Kat realise that lying on the stand wasn’t her smartest move, resulting in a 32% share.
But it was greedy guts Coronation Street (ITV) that stole first and second place with a double bill. 8.3 million viewers tuned in at 7:30pm, with the second trip to Weatherfield falling to 7.5 million at 8:30pm.
At 7pm, it was Emmerdale that got the evening’s ‘quality content’ rolling, with an audience of 6.7 million viewers catching up with the latest slice of small town lambing, mayhem and murder.
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.