1.5m tune in to C4 for the latest dirt on Richard III
Saturday afternoon finally brought the second episode of lightweight celebrity gymnastics show, Tumble (BBC One, 6:30pm), to a feverishly excited audience.
Just like ITV’s Splash, but set firmly on dry land, last week’s début episode pulled in 3.2 million viewers, resulting in mildly successful Saturday tea time fodder, even if the critics didn’t hold back.
This weekend’s sophomore episode saw the show increase in popularity slightly, with 3.3 million viewers and a 20% share joining in on the aerial hoop routines, which – at the very least – is more exciting than watching a five second clip of someone dive off a board on constant repeat for the entire show.
BBC One continued to bring in Saturday’s bigger audiences with the reliable but weathered show pony that is Casualty (8:50pm). 4.3 million viewers tuned in for the latest medical drama, securing a 23% share.
Before falling back on a dependable film franchise( yep another Star Wars), ITV attempted to flesh out its Saturday night schedule with a few family friendly quiz shows featuring gurning presenters with blinding white teeth, all the while sporting that dead-behind-the-eye look.
7:45pm brought Ben Sheppard and Tipping Point: Lucky Stars (ITV) who, in turn, brought in 3 million viewers and a 17% share. Right afterwards, Vernon Kay and All Star Family Fortunes (8:45pm) netted 2.7 million viewers and a 14% share.
Over on Channel 4, the first Iron Man (8pm) blasted off with 1.4 million viewers, with Marvel Studios’ first release netting an 8% share.
At 9:40pm BBC One once again proved that some kinds of evil can never die, with yet another repeat of Mrs Brown’s Boys securing 4.6 million viewers and a 25% share – the second biggest audience of the day.
In the end, Saturday’s number one spot was taken by BBC News at 10:15pm on BBC One, bagging a 28% share with 4.7 million viewers.
Things weren’t that much more exciting on Sunday but at least the overall audience was slightly more receptive.
4.2 million viewers tuned in to see Fiona Bruce and her caravan of middle aged antique-crazy friends spend another weekend in Perthshire’s Blair Castle. An audience share of 22% watched as dreams were dashed in the latest turbulent visit to the Antiques Roadshow (BBC One, 7pm).
But try as they might, there was no getting out of its more popular sibling’s shadow, as the unbeatable popularity of Countryfile (BBC One, 8pm) helped the show swoop in and win over the biggest audience over the two days.
Despite its impressive victory, only 5.1 million viewers tuned in to see the exciting 1276th episode in which the gang visited the identikit fields in rural Northern Ireland, bagging a 24% share.
Over on BBC Two, the twelfth series of Dragons’ Den (8pm) rattled on regardless, netting 2.6 million viewers and a 12% share.
9pm saw ITV continue with its retelling of World War I through amateur dramatics (which is an impressive feat with a half-decent cast).
The second episode of The Great War: The People’s Story continued to mash together Alan Bennet’s Talking Heads with an episode of Jackanory and saw Daniel Mays read some real letters from a fake trench, resulting in 1.5 million viewers and a 7% share.
Elsewhere, there was plenty more historical desolation to go round as Channel 4 dragged viewers kicking and screaming to The Mill at 8pm, with the penultimate episode of the second series netting 1.3 million and a 6% share.
Over on BBC One at 9pm, it was time for John Simm to don his working class cap of misery as he took another stroll through The Village, with 3.9 million viewers and an 18% share choosing to end their weekend in this fashion.
Channel 4 was still busy picking apart the carcass of that bloke from the car park at 9pm, as Richard III: The New Evidence (9pm) discovered that the 15th century was generally a hotbed of good times. 1.5 million viewers learned that the King was fond of a generous daily tipple, resulting in a 7% 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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