New Midsomer nets 4.8m for ITV while Wolf Hall sheds 1m
Wednesday night saw the prime time television line-up peak on ITV at 8pm as the broadcaster rolled out a fresh new series of humorous new homicides in Midsomer Murders.
After clogging up the schedules with a plethora of reruns in the eleven months since we last saw detectives Barnaby and Nelson celebrating the 100th episode in Denmark, the opening episode of the 17th series proved that there is still some life left in ITV’s not-yet-exhausted vehicle.
Last night brought in the biggest audience for the show’s two-hour time slot, as DCI J Barnaby and his relatively new sidekick DS Nelson had to brave a crime literary festival, which, in hindsight, should have set alarm bells ringing for the unlucky locals.
4.8 million viewers stayed tuned for the entire two hour running time, as our curious heroes had to figured out who murdered an artists via an electrified roulette wheel. The 101st episode of the charming rural manslaughter show netted a 22% share for ITV.
To counteract the long-running allure of innocuous killing on ITV, BBC One filled up the same two hours with cute animals and some sombre reflection. The second and concluding part of Pets – Wild at Heart (8pm) was another sixty minutes of various animals doing various things, all under the suspiciously vague theme of understanding household pets ‘in a new light’.
The David Tennant-narrated inoffensive schedule-filler secured an impressive 3.8 million viewers and an 18% share.
Afterwards, a very excited Jeremy Paxman got to excitedly re-enact Winston Churchill’s final journey to mark the 50th anniversary of the former Prime Minister’s death. Churchill: The Nation’s Farewell (9pm) highlighted the effort that went into the send-off, even if it was a bit of a downer, and netted 2.7 million viewers and a 12% share.
Over on BBC Two, The Great British Sewing Bee (8pm) caught up with last year’s ‘memorable’ contestants while still striving to make sewing seem vaguely interesting. The look back at the second series was watched by 1.5 million viewers and a 7% share.
Afterwards, the second instalment of the dark and dingy historical drama Wolf Hall (9pm) saw its début audience fall by 1 million viewers after breaking all kinds of drama records for BBC Two.
An audience of 2.9 million viewers watched as Mark Rylance’s Thomas Cromwell continued to worm his way into Henry VIII’s (Damian Lewis) favour, with the adaptation of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies providing BBC Two’s biggest audience of the day with a 13% share.
On Channel 4, the DIY/life-and-death combo of The Restoration Man (8pm) and 24 Hours in A&E (9pm) secured 1.4 million and 1.8 million viewers, respectively.
Meanwhile, Channel 5 was still discovering gold at the bottom of its barrel with the latest social horrors of Celebrity Big Brother (9pm) securing 2.5 million viewers and topping Kantar’s social TV Twitter chart for what feels like the 6000th day running.
Afterwards, the self-explanatory droll of Sugar Daddy, 82, Seeks 24 Year Old: Age Gap Love managed an impressive 1.2 million viewers for its 10pm time slot.
Earlier at 8pm, BBC Three and Channel 5 got into an intense battle of disposable airport documentaries with their ‘unique’ offerings. Bangkok Airport, an exciting doc about Bangkok’s main airport, secured 520,000 viewers and a 2% share, while Channel 5’s North Pole Ice Airport (same thing, with significantly more ice) was watched by 632,000 viewers and a 3% share.
Even earlier, ITV had sole reign over the day’s soapy proceedings with Emmerdale at 7pm securing 6.6 million viewers and Coronation Street (7:30pm) bringing in 7.8 million viewers, the top two shows of the day.
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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