Shabnam’s baby bombshell sees EastEnders take Thurs top spot
BBC One ruled over Thursday’s prime time proceedings with a mixture of breezy and brooding drama, with EastEnders building up more momentum as it careers towards February’s 30th anniversary, while Death in Paradise‘s mixture of death and sunshine continued to win over viewers.
The sun continued to shine over Walford at 7:30pm as personality vacuum Shabnam Masood attempted to attract some sympathy by spilling a dark secret to unconvincing new BFF Stacey Branning.
The totes emotes heart-to-heart saw EastEnders (BBC One) easily walk away with Thursday’s biggest audience, with the absence of Coronation Street from last night’s schedule giving BBC One’s soap a helping hand.
Over 7 million viewers tuned in for further not-so-cryptic clues about Lucy Beale’s murder (recent weeks have seen the suspects whittled down to a manageable 50% of the cast, past and present) with Shabnam’s baby bombshell helping secure a 33% share.
Afterwards, Eat Well for Less? (BBC One, 8pm) saw ever-present TV food person Gregg Wallace spread his simple message of, well, eating well for less, stretch across three hour-long episodes. The first slice of the domestic intake guide brought in 4.8 million viewers and a 21% share.
At 9pm, light and cheerful murder show Death in Paradise (BBC One) managed to secure the biggest audience so far this series, with Kris Marshall’s bumbling and uncoordinated white person, DI Goodman, tasked with tracking down a bride-to-be on an annoying hen’s weekend.
A whopping 7 million viewers tuned in to see the latest death on the beautiful Caribbean island, with the relationship tease between the two main stars becoming something beyond exhausting. A 30% share, the biggest in the 9pm slot, tuned in for the fourth series’ fourth episode of beach-side sleuthing.
ITV kicked off the evening with the first of two trips to Emmerdale, with the 7pm visit watched by 6.2 million viewers and a 31% share.
The second episode at 8pm saw poor stable boy Aaron Livesy being lured to a fancy hotel by lord of the manor, Robert Sugden, who provided his simple lover with a PlayStation in a not-at-all-creepy move.
A smaller audience of 6 million viewers watched the affair unfold at 8pm, resulting in a 27% share.
Afterwards, the lumbering reanimated corpse of Birds of a Feather (ITV, 8:30pm) crawled towards the end of its eleventh series. 3.9 million viewers watched as Tracey got released from prison while scary oil painting Dorien hilariously struggled with her gambling problems.
In the 9pm slot, there was some middle class anxiety relief as the ruffians with an ill-favoured look in their eyes on Bring Back Borstal received their last savage beatings before re-joining society.
Kicking off with 2.2 million viewers a few weeks ago, the fourth and final episode secured 1.7 million viewers and a 7% share for ITV.
Over on BBC Two, there was Attenborough’s Paradise Birds at 8pm. Unfortunately, not a sordid tell-all tale about the explorer’s early jaunts to lands unknown, but actually a look at the avian man-tarts of New Guinea.
1.9 million viewers (a 9% share) watched as the birds of the forest strutted their stuff, shrieked psychotically and basically acted a little special to find their mate.
Later at 9pm on Channel 5, 2.7 million viewers were entrapped by the exotic dance of frolicking nightmare Perez Hilton as he attempted to swoon prize house mate Katie Hopkins. The latest ‘fun’ from Celebrity Big Brother netted a 12% share.
At the same time, Sky Atlantic waded into decent drama with its homemade whodunit, Fortitude (9pm). The claustrophobic Arctic Circle-set thriller netted 662,000 viewers and a 3% share.
On Channel 4, the second episode of Cucumber (9pm) fell from last week’s début audience of 974,000 viewers to last night’s 661,000, while companion show Banana (10pm) secured just 212,000 viewers on E4.
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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