1.3m watch Jon Snow spark one up on Channel 4’s Drugs Live
After two nights of successful dramas helped to bring in large audiences to BBC One and ITV, Tuesday night saw a noticeable fall in the prime time popularity.
Last night TV viewers were offered the enviable choice between preachy finger-wagging investigations, opportunistic docs and some casual drug use on Channel 4.
After a pretty tame evening, Jon Snow took one for the team and smoked a big fat blunt in a desperate attempt to keep the viewing nation awake. Drugs Live: Cannabis on Trial (10pm) saw co-presenter Christian Jessen keep the show on track while a muted Snow clambered into an MRI scanner in order to justify the sensationalist show.
1.3 million viewers watched the veteran newsreader who was joined by former royal correspondent Jennie Bond as they delved head first into the world of skunk and hash, resulting in a 10% share and – unsurprisingly – generated the most amount of TV tweets yesterday.
The 9pm slot’s biggest player came in the affable form of Mel Giedroyc and Matt Baker’s tolerable chemistry in the fourth – and sadly final – instalment of BBC One’s crying show, The Gift.
After three episodes of dogoodery and cathartic oversharing with the British public, last night’s grand finale saw Mel and Sue Matt wrangle together two more sombre souls who were desperate to make peace with their pasts by apologising to/thanking certain key figures in their lives.
After opening up with 3.6 million viewers back in mid-February, the show that encourages viewers to violently exude warm and fuzzy feelings consecutively managed to net the 9pm slot, despite its flagging rating.
Continuously shedding viewers week on week, yesterday introduced viewers to a former armed robber who wanted to converse with his victims, resulting in just 2.8 million viewers and a 13% share.
Tuesday’s lacklustre late evening of entertainment continued on ITV with an hour of rage-bait on Exposure: When Pregnant Women Drink at 9pm. 1.3 million viewers spent their evening learning about foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, resulting in a 6% share.
At the same time, Channel 4 continued to revel in the plight of the desperate in the third and final episode of The Romanians Are Coming (9pm) which looked at the mass emigration currently happening in Romania.
1.6 million viewers first tuned in to see the humorous side of alienation and sleeping rough, with yesterday’s closing instalment bringing in 1.2 million viewers and a 6% share to Channel 4.
Over on Channel 5, Professor of Criminology David Wilson was back with his dodgy reconstructions in another charming episode of Killer Psychopaths at 9pm. This week viewers were invited to revel in the murders of the Suffolk Strangler as Wilson visited all the crime scenes to deliver his naff monologue to camera.
Channel 5’s biggest audience tuned in to catch all the gory details resulting in 786,000 viewers and a 4% share.
Thankfully at the same time BBC Two offered up a completely different option with yet another show whimsically looking at the mysteries of the night sky. Horizon: Secrets of the Solar System (9pm) was simply a Brian Cox show without the lyrical professor, with the computer generated exploration of Earth’s closest planets resulting in 1.8 million viewers and a 9% share.
Earlier at 8pm, Holby City secured 4.7 million viewers and a 22% share on BBC One while Super Powered Owls: Natural World on BBC Two brought in 2.1 million viewers and a 10% share.
On Channel 4, Mary Portas: Secret Shopper (8pm) was back to make some more family businesses cry with her brand of ‘tough talking’, netting 1.4 million viewers and a 6% share, the broadcaster’s biggest audience of the day.
Earlier in the day Emmerdale (7pm) secured 6.2 million viewers and a 32% share on ITV, but was once again overshadowed by soap of the moment EastEnders.
After continuously bagging the top spot over the last few weeks and one day after defeating a double bill of Coronation Street, BBC One’s birthday soap once again bagged the biggest audience, with Tuesday’s trip to Walford securing 7.2 million viewers and a 35% 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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