Anna’s dodgy proposition on Corrie brings in 7.2m to ITV
Wednesday night saw BBC One return to the unsettled ecosystem of Monkey Planet (9pm), as presenter George McGavin decided to show viewers the brutal side of the cute and cuddly world.
The second of three episodes focused on some significantly unappealing behaviour from the reckless little primates, perhaps explaining why the show was down 700,000 viewers week on week.
A total of 2.7 million viewers watched as kidnapping, extremely bad parenting and intimidation of violent treatment of the young and weak spread throughout the once blissful planet. An audience share of 13% meant that for the second week in a row the nature documentary couldn’t contend with ITV’s 9pm offering.
This was good news for those weary and hardened detectives over on the commercial broadcaster, as Bradley Walsh’s salt of the earth, DS Brooks, once again teamed up with his stuck-up prosecutor friends to dispense their particular brand of franchised justice.
The fifth episode Law & Order: UK‘s (9pm) eighth series saw Brooks and his underling Hakwins investigate the apparent suicide of an elderly woman. As usual, it wasn’t long before Brooks’ gut instinct was kicking in, suspecting some kind of foul play and leading him down more paths than a hyperactive puppy.
A slightly higher-than-usual audience of 3.9 million viewers caught up with the latest case from the localised spin-off show, not only netting a 17% share but the biggest audience in the 9pm slot.
Over on BBC Two, Ian Hislop was jumping head first into the dark ages, as he explored our warped view of the history of the UK.
Ian Hislop’s Olden Days – The Power of the Past in Britain (9pm) saw the broadcaster in positively gleeful form as he debunked one myth after myth, taking careful consideration to make viewers doubt pretty much everything they know about King Arthur and King Alfred.
An impressive 1.9 million viewers watched the first part of three as they questioned everything they’ve ever been told about ancient history, netting a 9% share in the process.
Meanwhile over on Channel 4, Mark Evans concluded his highly questionable odyssey into the extremely personal details of dead celebrities as he poked his nose through their double-stranded molecules of nucleic acids, all for our prime time entertainment.
The third and final episode of Dead Famous DNA (9pm) found Mark hunting down the gene code for pure evil as he claimed to have found hair strands from Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun in a hair brush. Hmmmmm.
Also on offer was a decayed tooth that some dodgy dentist claimed belonged to John Lennon, so Mark could unlock the secret of pretentious relationships, presumably.
After exploding onto our screens two weeks ago with 808,000 viewers, former Pet Rescue presenter Mark Evans continued to shed viewers with the second adventure (starring a curly hair from Charles Darwin’s beard), managing to pull in just 675,000 viewers.
Last night’s grand finale, in which we met a holocaust-denier and a man who was intent on cloning the Beatles singer, was watched by 583,000 viewers and a 3% share.
Slightly less freaky was The £60,000 Puppy: Cloning Man’s Best Friend (Channel 4) which followed Evan’s dodgy DNA hunting at 10pm. The bizarre documentary followed British dog owners as they competed for the chance to get their beloved pet cloned by a South Korean company.
The addition of cute dead puppies into the DNA mix saw the documentary better the earlier audience at 9pm, with 623,000 people tuning in to see which little critter would defy God’s tight laws about resurrection.
Earlier at 8pm, the third heat of the culinary creativity competition that is MasterChef (BBC One) walked away with 4.5 million viewers and a 21% share, while Under Offer: Estate Agents on the Job – a charming documentary about those lovely people that sell houses – trapped 2 million souls in its web of fake smiles and surveyor bills.
On ITV, one of the boys from Boyzone, an X Factor ‘winner’ and a survivor of Big Brother offered their children up for sacrifice on the lovely teatime competition, Big Star’s Little Star (ITV, 8pm). 3.7 million viewers watched as the stars used their own flesh and blood to gain further exposure and pay for the replacement roof, netting an 18% share.
Meanwhile on Channel 4, comfort snacking surveillance show Secret Eaters (8pm) brought in 851,000 viewers to the channel.
As was usual for the midweek schedule, the soap glory belonged solely to ITV, with Emmerdale bringing in the day’s second biggest audience at 7pm. 6.2 million viewers and a 33% share watched as Belle Dingle continued to drag out her tortured storyline for a little while longer.
Straight up afterwards it was time to hit the cobbles of Coronation Street (ITV, 7:30pm) as Anna Windass mulled over her shudder-inducing decision in order to save her family. 7.2 million viewers and a 35% share tuned in to see the café waitress contemplate sleeping with sleazy builder Pat Phelan, easily securing Wednesday’s number one slot.
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.