Live EastEnders & Bake Off sees BBC One rule Wednesday night
For a second consecutive night, BBC One secured the day’s top spot with another little-bit live episode of EastEnders (8pm), as exhausted viewers became even closer to finding out who exactly took the jam out of Lucy Beale’s doughnut.
Kicking off with a surprise return for Jo Joyner’s Tanya Branning, the episode mixed things up from Tuesday’s episode by sprinkling live scenes throughout just to throw some added pressure onto the actors’ shoulders. While there were some bizarre pauses and facial expressions during Ian and Laura Beale’s crowded wedding scene, there was only one noticeable fluffed line.
Despite what happened in the infamous 25th anniversary live episode, Jake Wood’s Max Branning continued to carry many of the live scenes but it was his estranged wife Tanya who actually botched the job, confusing actors with characters by asking Jane ‘how’s Adam?’
That slip-up alone made sure EastEnders was the most talked about soap on Twitter yesterday, generating 140,000 tweets during broadcast.
In total, 8.9 million viewers tuned in to try and filter through all the allegations, misdirection and ominous Dot Cotton voice-overs in an attempt to figure out what exactly was going on.
Scenes of Peter Beale seemingly narrowing down the killer/s to his own household (with promises of the full reveal to come during tonight’s 1.5 hour anniversary revelations episode) helped secure a 38% share for BBC One.
ITV’s rival soaps also fared fairly well with Emmerdale bagging 6.2 million viewers and a 31% share at 7pm, while Coronation Street secured 7.3 million viewers and a 34% share straight afterwards at 7:30pm.
BBC One’s highly confident stride continued at 8:30pm, with the second instalment of the probably-better-than-the-original-show success that is The Great Comic Relief Bake Off.
Yesterday saw Gok Wan let stress get the better of him as he attempted to defeat his competitors, which included a hyper and completely useless Jonathan Ross, some footballer’s wife and walking-targeted-advertising-platform-made-flesh, Zoella.
7 million viewers caught up with the charity-based fun, resulting in a 30% share for the channel.
Over on BBC Two, the latest portion of skulduggery and plotting on Wolf Hall (9pm) secured a healthy 2.5 million viewers as the newly named supreme head of the church in England, Henry VIII, grew a little bored of poor Anne Boleyn. An 11% share tuned in to see the latest strategic marriage dissolve into poison, securing BBC Two’s biggest hit of the day.
ITV offered up another two hours of Midsomer Murders at 8pm, with this week’s tragedy brought to screens by the repeated use of the word ‘wine’. 3.7 million viewers tuned in for vineyard-based shenanigans, resulting in a 16% share.
On Channel 4, the restless hospital staff on 24 Hours in A&E (9pm) had to deal with a chronic burper, resulting in 1.7 million viewers and 7% share, while Channel 5’s gift to the world, World’s Biggest Hips, brought in over 1 million viewers and a 5% 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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