BBC One move sees Bake Off wrap up with a 45% YoY increase
After ten long weeks of frantic baking, difficult-to-digest puns and a lot of pastry-related stress, last night brought the finale of The Great British Bake Off (BBC One, 8pm) with the fifth series of the competition performing phenomenally well after its move from BBC Two.
Even though the vast majority of fans thought the outcome was a given, a record amount of viewers showed up to see if Richard the builder, Nancy the energetic gran or graphic designer Luis would be crowned this year’s baking monarch.
After the show debuted on BBC One in August with an impressive 7.2 million viewers (by comparison the opening episode last series pulled in 5.6 million on BBC Two) the year’s end game arrived under a heavy cloud of anticipation and served up a surprising twist for those who have been following this year’s series.
A whopping 12.3 million viewers tuned in to see one of the bakers surprise everyone and seriously stumble at the final hurdle.
A 49% audience share tuned in to see eliminated contestants return to lurk outside the sweltering tent while the finalists sweated inside, meaning it’s pretty safe to say the channel migration worked out for pretty much everyone involved.
Meanwhile on ITV, Russell Grant and Linda Robson put the celebrity into Celebrity Squares (8pm), with the Warick Davies-fronted quiz netting 2.3 million viewers and a 9% share.
On BBC Two, the third and final part of Long Shadow (8pm), a documentary about the legacy of the First World War, was watched by 639,000 viewers and a 3% share.
The nonsensically titled Sarah Beeney’s Double Your House for Half the Money (8pm) was watched by over 1 million viewers on Channel 4 while Channel 5’s The Nightmare Neighbour Next Door (8pm) (possibly referring to Beeney and all that building) actually came out on top with 1.3 million viewers and a 5% share.
Later at 9pm, Manchester’s crime fighting duo Scott & Bailey (ITV) were back on the streets, taking an equal amount of swipes at each other as they did the feckless men that surround them.
3.7 million viewers tuned in for the latest police adventure – mainly held together by bitter work relationships and personal resentments – securing a 17% share for ITV.
But it was BBC One that continued to hold on to the biggest share at 9pm, as the finale of mawkish family drama Our Zoo continued to secure a healthy midweek audience. 4.5 million viewers and a 20% share joined in for the last of the Chester-based drama.
Horizon‘s latest grand experiment Cat Watch 2014 (9pm) was moved up to the 9pm slot for its second day, possibly to avoid a clash with the ruckus going on earlier on BBC One.
Down from Tuesday’s opener which secured 2.6 million, last night’s scientific look at our feline manipulators friends brought in 1.6 million and a 7% share.
Channel 4 brought viewers the latest episode of Grand Designs (9pm) in which Kevin McCloud seethed with anger at the bureaucratic planning permission people throughout, which was worth seeing alone.
1.9 million viewers (a 9% share) joined a single mum on her journey to cut through the never-ending red tape and someone who managed to build a family home in six months.
Earlier at 7pm, there was a huge shock in store for Charity in Emmerdale (ITV) as her husband returned from the dead, hell bent on bloody revenge. 5.9 million viewers tuned in to see Declan Macey pop up in a video message, shocking fans and characters alike and netting a 31% share.
Straight afterwards was Coronation Street (ITV, 7:30pm) and, well, it finally happened. After 42 long years on the soap, Deirdre Barlow had finally had enough.
7 million viewers tuned in to see actress Anne Kirkbride’s mysteriously rushed departure play out as Deirdre suddenly realised her life was a never-ending nightmare of drama. A share of 33% watched as Deirdre snapped and flipped out during a particularly awkward family dinner scene.
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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