I’m a Celeb clash sees The Missing fall to 4.7m viewers
Tuesday night saw punishing thriller, The Missing (BBC One, 9pm), hurtle towards its finale as James Nesbitt’s tortured journey continued.
Not only did Tony (the bereft father Nesbitt plays) have to deal with the hunt for his missing son across two separate time lines, but there was only ITV’s lightweight jungle frivolity to contend with.
The tense drama details the father’s frantic search for his son after he goes missing on holiday, looking at both the immediate aftermath and Tony’s vengeful return to the French town eight years later.
Kicking off with 5.8 million viewers back in mid-November, the audience remained loyal for a few weeks until the fourth episode clashed with an England match, resulting in a noticeable dip in viewers.
The sixth episode last night saw Tony’s wife fall apart under all the anxiety, while in the present day he had to ask his estranged partner for money to follow a lead. The latest hour of desperate measures saw the audience fall to 4.7 million viewers while securing a 19% share for BBC One.
But it was the 90 minutes of ITV’s easier-to-watch option that secured Tuesday’s biggest audience, with the second evictee of I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! (8:30pm) bagging the prize for the commercial broadcaster.
The fifteenth episode of the celebrity weight loss adventure saw nice-but-dull ‘reality star’ Nadia Forde being flung from the safety of the jungle compound into the new-found attention of the UK’s media.
7.3 million viewers watched a The X Factor once again came into play as the focus of singing reject Jake Quickenden’s flirtation was given her marching orders, resulting in a 30% share.
At the same time, Channel 4 was attempting to provoke open up dialogue about topical matters with another social conscious documentary. Refreshingly, the heads of the family in 17 Kids and Counting (9pm) actually ran their own business, taking a nice break from the schedule-filling scrounger docs of recent times.
1.3 million viewers tuned in for the follow-up documentary which saw matriarch, Sue, celebrate another pregnancy, netting Channel 4’s biggest audience of the day with a 5% share.
At the same time, Channel 5 was back on the coroner’s slab after slicing open and fiddling about with the innards of Whitney Houston, Karen Carpenter et al, the broadcaster was back with its scalpel at the ready, never letting good taste get in the way of Autopsy: The Last Hours of…(9pm).
Last night brought the first episode of the third series, with Elvis Presley’s battered organs the lucky stars of yesterday’s show. 962,000 viewers tuned in to see, in excruciating detail, exactly what did the King of Rock and Roll in, netting a 4% share.
Over on BBC Two, viewers were offered the chance to learn a little something about history and what not in the third episode of Secrets of the Castle with Ruth, Peter and Tom (9pm). 1.5 million viewers tuned in to see the gang continue to build their medieval castle from scratch, resulting in a 6% share.
At 8pm Holby City (BBC One) netted 3.4 million viewers and a 15% share while MasterChef: The Professionals brought 3 million viewers and a 13% share to sister channel BBC Two. On Channel 4, the kooky lot on Obsessive Compulsive Cleaners secured a little over 1 million viewers and a 4% share.
Earlier at 7pm, Emmerdale brought in ITV’s second biggest audience as Cain played detective and pieceed together who ran his lady friend off the road (thankfully for the doe-eyed mechanic it really wasn’t a tough one to crack), resulting in 5.7 million viewers and a 28% share.
The second episode at 8pm just managed a little over 5 million viewers.
Meanwhile in Walford, more lives were being ruined as newly-outed drug dealer Peter Beale arrived from New Zealand and managed to get engaged in under half an hour.
Yesterday’s EastEnders (BBC One, 7:30pm) saw Ian Beale hold his tongue after just discovering his son was his daughter’s drug dealer, securing the day’s second biggest audience with 6.4 million viewers and a 31% share.
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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