TV viewing round-up: August 2014

The return of The Great British Bake Off saw controversy reign as ‘Baked Alaska-gate’ gave the amateur cooking series its biggest audience yet.

The whole hullabaloo which saw Iain Watters eliminated due to his melted dessert drew plenty of ire on social media, thereby creating the sort of headlines ITV would love for its own reality shows.

An average audience of 10.3 million people tuned in to see Diana Beard, a woman who wouldn’t harm a fly but may melt an ice cream, bear the brunt of Mr Watters’ frustration.

Having to settle for second spot is probably something that Simon Cowell isn’t used to, but the once mighty ratings banker The X Factor has underperformed somewhat for ITV recently in its ratings war with Strictly Come Dancing.

It was therefore timely that the eleventh series of the singing contest saw the return of Mr Cowell, along with newly-married Cheryl Fernandez-Versini and Scary Spice Mel B. Despite the revamp this year’s series opener trailed behind the Beeb’s cooking show, with just under 10.1 million viewers.

This month Peter Capaldi finally achieved his goal of playing Doctor Who having previously appeared in the fourth series episode ‘The Fires of Pompeii’ and spin off show Torchwood. Clearly he was working his way up to the main job in the manner of ‘The Little Train That Could’.

The extended episode titled ‘Deep Breath’ attracted just under 9.2 million viewers, giving the sci-fi show its highest series opening episode since 2010.

August also saw the début of Kay Mellor’s latest drama offering In The Club, which was either a six part ode to the 50 Cent song or a series about mothers-to-be who meet at a local parentcraft class.

The third episode proved to be most popular this month, with 5.8 million people tuning in to see Hermione Norris’s character Roanna struggle with her impending birth.

With the exception of The X Factor, ITV only had two other programmes make this month’s list. The first was Long Lost Family, which pulled in just over five million viewers; and the other was The Chase: Celebrity Specials seen by 4.27 million people.

Other programmes doing well in August include: New Tricks, which was seen by 7.2 million people; shy and retiring Brian Blessed’s Who Do You Think You Are?, watched by 6.1 million viewers; the opening episode from the second series of The Village, which had an average audience of 5.3 million; Commonwealth Games: Closing Ceremony, which pulled in 4.8 million viewers; and The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, which kept 4.6 million entertained.

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