Patisserie problems see Bake Off semi-final rise 57% yoy
Wednesday night finally brought the semi-final of The Great British Bake Off (BBC One, 8pm) to the nation’s screens after nine long weeks of tears, sweat, lots of butter and a heavy sprinkling of contrived controversies.
Last night saw the four remaining contestants face three dreaded patisserie challenges, with the pressure reaching critical levels in the Berkshire countryside. 8.8 million viewers tuned in to see professional tension-defuser Mel Giedroyc travel to Germany to help make a giant doner kebab-style cake, resulting in the day’s biggest audience.
An impressive 39% share watched as the dream came to an end for one contestant, turning four competitive bakers into three finalists.
The penultimate episode of the nation’s favourite competition continued to justify the show’s fifth series’ big move to BBC One – by comparison, series four’s semi-final was watched by 5.6 million viewers in October on BBC Two last year. The excitement of baklava baking topped yesterday’s twitter tweet chart.
Up against the quaint phenomenon was the latest episode of Celebrity Squares (8pm) on ITV, the celebrity here simply being presenters from other exciting ITV properties. 2.3 million viewers tuned in to see Louis Walsh and Christine Bleakley attempt to bring the charm, netting a 10% share.
There was a complete change of pace over on BBC Two with the second episode of Long Shadow (8pm) – a programme looking back at the influence of the First World War – netting just 722,000 viewers.
At the same time, the remaining terrestrial channels were concerned with domestic affairs with Double Your House for Half the Money (Channel 4, 8pm) netting a little over 1 million viewers while The Nightmare Neighbour Next Door (Channel 5, 9pm) was watched by 1.4 million.
Later at 9pm, the forth series of tough lady detective drama Scott & Bailey (9pm) continued to under-perform, with 3.8 million viewers and a 17% share.
Once again it was sentimental BBC One family drama Our Zoo that secured the 9pm slot, with the Chester-based show pulling in 4.5 million viewers and a 21% share.
Over on Channel 4, poor Kevin McCloud’s sense of decency was once again under attack from a couple with big ideas on Grand Designs (9pm). 1.9 million viewers tuned in to see an old milk yard in South East London get a bizarre makeover, resulting in a 9% share.
Straight afterwards was Channel 4’s latest worrying documentary, this time looking at citizen justice taken to extremes. The Paedophile Hunter (10pm) did exactly what it said on the tin and followed an undercover vigilante as he tricked and caught offenders.
An audience of 1.2 million tuned in for the very low-grade remake of NBC’s murky and unsettling To Catch a Predator, netting an 8% share.
Much earlier in soap land, Emmerdale (ITV, 7pm) saw Priya stress about her impending wedding, despite living in a small town with an alarmingly high mortality rate. 6.2 million viewers tuned in for the latest drama from the Yorkshire Dales, translating to a 34% share.
Straight afterwards, Coronation Street (ITV, 7:30pm) brought in the day’s second biggest audience. A little under 7 million viewers tuned in to see a character actually leave Weatherfield, as Kylie tracked down her troubled ex, resulting in a 34% 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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