BBC One secures 9pm slot with documentary about parking
Thursday brought a night of factual prime time entertainment, with not one drama series to be seen in the 9pm schedule, with viewers instead being asked to choose between light observation, emotional manipulation and the stark harrowing reality of old age.
BBC One served up one of the least stressful 9pm offerings from the main channels, as the second episode of Parking Mad perched itself right on the front lines of the great parking war – which apparently is West Bromwich, Croydon and Selby.
As the war raged all around them, residents, council representatives and even traffic wardens were brave enough to stand their ground and voice their opinions, helping to capture the attention of the biggest prime time audience.
4.1 million people tuned in for a bit of cathartic rage venting, down slightly from last week’s 4.3 million viewers. An audience share of 20% ensured that the thrilling battle of wills and legislation won the coveted 9pm time slot.
Meanwhile, ITV were busy manipulating prime time audiences into crying, as emotional investment is a sure-fire way to ensure they’ll stick through the multiple adverts and idents. 9pm saw the commercial broadcaster kick off a brand new series called Wanted: A Family of My Own.
Nicky Campbell, him of similarly calculated-to-make-people-sob sister show Long Lost Family, was back to throw forlorn glances down the camera while meeting a variety of people who play vital parts throughout the adoption process.
Similar to Channel 4’s recent 15,000 Kids and Counting – but with 100% more Nicky Campbell – the still-challenging hour of sobering telly secured an audience of 2.1 million viewers and a 10% share, translating to about 800,000 more viewers than Channel 4’s straighter effort.
Things were looking a lot bleaker over on BBC Two with Protecting Our Parents (9pm), a documentary that made the recent events in EastEnders seem positively joyous. The second of three episodes looking at the uncomfortable decisions about looking after ageing parents, last night focused on the difficulties of home care.
The hard going but worthwhile hour of emotional annihilation was watched by 944,000 viewers and a 5% share.
Thank God, then, for Kevin McCloud.
After building himself a dainty summer house made out of empty coke cans (possibly) in Kevin McCloud’s Man Made Home, the presenter was back for another high concept experiment.
Kevin’s Supersized Salvage (9pm) saw three designers tasked with ‘upcycling’ an old Airbus A320 into desirable goods, in an impressive effort to highlight the value of waste. 1.3 million viewers tuned in for the one-off creative splurge, netting a 6% share.
An hour earlier on Channel 4, the new series of Posh Pawn (8pm) continued after a one off special of the same name last year. An audience of 1.5 million viewers tuned in to see the highly questionable owners of expensive tat decide to flog their wares on national television, resulting in a 7% share.
At the same time on BBC One, MasterChef (8pm) continued to perform solidly as the final group on new contestants sharpened their knives and… well, you know the format. The consistently popular show brought in an audience of 4.8 million viewers and a 22% share.
Earlier, ITV kicked off a battle of the soaps as the first of two episodes of Emmerdale went out at 7pm. An unusually low audience of 5.8 million viewers watched as teenager Belle Dingle prepared for her big day in court, resulting in a 33% share.
Viewing figures fell even further at 8pm, with only 5.5 million people tuning in to see if the little tearaway would plead guilty to murder or not.
Sandwiched in-between on BBC One was the latest goings on in the Beale household in EastEnders (7:30pm). Emotions were still running high as the family dealt with the police investigation into Lucy’s death.
Thursday’s biggest audience tuned in to watch patriarch Ian loose his head a little bit, kicking the spawn of Cindy Beale – also called Cindy, for convenience – out onto the dangerous streets of Walford.
7.5 million viewers watched the generous outpouring of grief EastEnders had on offer, resulting in a 37% 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.