Latest sucker punch on Game of Thrones nets 950,000 viewers
Monday brought the latest devastating death blow to long-suffering fans of Game of Thrones (9pm) as the brutal fantasy show’s successful fourth series continued on Sky Atlantic.
At this stage, viewers of the international hit should be well used to the hard blows dealt out in spades by the writers, but yesterday’s last-second reversal-of-fortune was another particularly mean and demoralising sucker punch.
After teasing last night’s epic face-off between The Mountain and The Viper since the start of the current series, there was certainly a lot resting on the outcome of the savage and swift trial-by-combat.
By now the list of actual ‘good’ guys has been whittled down to around two (and a half) people from an original cast of hundreds, so it was particularly devastating when a very popular character’s fate was cemented in the closing seconds. The latest development helped the show become the second most tweeted about show of the day, with 64 tweets for every 1,000 viewers.
An average audience of 950,000 tuned in to Sky Atlantic to continue their abusive relationship with the unrelenting and unique Game of Thrones, securing a 4% share in the prime time slot.
Meanwhile on BBC One, Kirsty Young and her team of vigilant purveyors of justice were slightly more concerned with those niggly real world issues. The latest edition of Crimewatch (9pm) barely nabbed the biggest 9pm audience away from its commercial rivals, with an audience of 3.6 million viewers and a 16% share tuning in to see former rugby player and policeman Martin Bayfield delving into the heady world of illegal highs.
At the very same time on BBC Two was the debut of three part factual show A Very British Airline (9pm). The latest in a long line of thrilling documentaries looking at people simply doing their jobs, the show came across like a creepy love letter from one struggling British institution to another.
A pretty impressive audience of 2.8 million viewers tuned in to see some distraught and plummy first class passengers dissecting their sub-par brioche, netting the channel’s biggest audience and a 12% share.
ITV’s big Monday night game plan was pretty straight forward. After an hour of running mascara and high emotions in the soaps, the commercial broadcaster attempted to retain the big audiences by airing an hour of cute and grumpy cats.
Following on from high quality schedule filler The Secret Life of Dogs, Secret Life of Cats (9pm) pretty much delivered on its promise, delivering sixty minutes of feline fluff. Martin Clunes (more of a dog lover, but who cares?) was back to narrate, helping 3.6 million viewers (a 16% share) fall for the charms of the purring master race.
Meanwhile, Channel 5 was busy stirring up some irrational hatred mature social debate with the responsibly titled Illegal Immigrant and Proud at 9pm. An audience of 964,000 viewers tuned in to see the desperate measures refugees take in Calais, netting an 4% share.
At the same time, Channel 4 dedicated a night to wrapping up Bear Grylls’ isolated, sunburnt, hungry and crabby masculinity competition – with not one clear winner in sight. Although, the fact that not one of the thirteen contestants on The Island with Bear Grylls (9pm) was murdered in their sleep is testament to Channel 4’s concern for its reality stars’ mental health.
After facing four weeks of extreme hunger, heat and a whole lot of bitching, the final episode saw the haggard men look to the horizon where a comparatively glamorous looking Bear Grylls showed up with fresh water, bringing an end to their exhausting sunshine break.
The adventures on the island of the alpha males kicked off with an audience of 1.9 million four weeks ago and despite reaching 2.1 million viewers recently, the grand finale fell back down to the original count. Last night’s 1.9 million translated to a 7% share and provided Channel 4’s biggest audience of the day.
Unfortunately the post mortem show that aired straight afterwards featured at least 200% more Bear Grylls, dispensing retroactive wisdom like Captain Hindsight on speed.
Bear Grylls: Surviving the Island (10pm) saw the men gather together again and group hug in therapy, bringing in 1.2 million viewers and an 8% share.
Earlier in the day, Emmerdale (7pm) secured 6.2 million viewers (a 32% share) for ITV, while a double helping of Coronation Street netted the top two audiences of the day. 8.2 million viewers (a 39% share) tuned in at 7:30pm to see if Tina had finally died or not, with the aftermath being watched by 7.9 million viewers (a 34% share) at 8:30pm.
Squashed in between, was BBC One’s very own brand of teatime misery as EastEnders (8pm) became the channel’s biggest performer of the day. 7.4 million viewers watched as the Butcher’s dealt with the aftermath of another tragic Walford wedding, resulting in a 35% 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.
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