Return of ITV’s BGT devours BBC’s last ever Voice UK
This weekend’s television line-up threw up a plethora of sporting action, as well as the return of a perennially popular Saturday night favourite – which was enough of a joint tactic to ensure Countryfile didn’t walk away with the number one spot once again.
Things kicked off at 2pm on Saturday as Channel 4 aired the racing calendar’s biggest event, with The Grand National Live from Aintree broadcasting for four and a half hours.
An average audience of 2.9 million viewers (a 24% share) tuned in for the entire coverage of the Merseyside meeting, but it was the big race itself that saw an intense peak in ratings.
At 5:15pm, a whopping 9.5 million viewers tuned in to see Rule the World secure this year’s Grand National, resulting in a 56% share for the 15 minute time slot.
There was another monumental event at 7pm, as commercial broadcaster ITV launched a brand new series of sure-fire-ratings-hit-no-matter-how-stale-the-concept-gets, Britain’s Got Talent.
Unlike every other talent programme clogging up the schedules, the 10th series of the variety show saw Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon and the increasingly-wrong David Walliams all return for another bout of contrived comradery, dishing out more manufactured drama than those Strictly judges can manage in one whole series.
The return of the familiar format graced viewers’ screens for an hour and a half and walked away with the weekend’s number one spot despite reporting the second smallest début audience for Britain’s Got Talent since it kicked off in 2007.
A little under 10 million viewers watched the launch of the 2015 series, with Saturday’s début seeing 8.1 million viewers tuning in to catch a veteran of America’s Got Talent, Ukraine’s Got Talent and Russia’s Got Talent sticking a sword down his gob, resulting in a 37% share.
While there were mixed blessings for Cowell’s talent show, it was mostly all bad news for the very last episode of The Voice UK (7pm) on BBC One.
[advert position=”left”]Having opened with a concerning 7.1 million viewers many, many week ago, all eyes were on the ratings of the talent-show-differentiated-with-a-minor-twist ahead of its big move to ITV.
Despite managing to hold its own over the past few weeks, Saturday’s finale was completely trounced by return of ITV’s unbeatable weapon, bringing in the lowest ever audience for a finale.
Just 4.5 million viewers turned in to try and be excited at seeing a former professional pop star crowned the winner, resulting in a paltry 21% share for the tired two hour show. We’ll see next year if adding a multitude of ad breaks can help fix this dilemma.
Elsewhere, BBC Two’s coverage of Golf: The Masters 2016 kicked off at 7:30pm, with an average audience of 1.4 million viewers gravitating towards four and a half hours of putting fun.
Over on BBC One, Casualty did its thing at 9pm and secured 5.1 million viewers (a 26% share) while Match of the Day netted 3.2 million viewers and a 24% share at 10:20pm.
Sunday brought another exciting instalment of Countryfile (7pm) and while it did nab Sunday’s top spot, Saturday’s big show still overshadowed the rural magazine show.
6.2 million viewers watched as John Craven met a real-life fisherman, resulting in a 30% share, while Antiques Roadshow (8pm) secured 5.2 million viewers and a 22% share.
There was an avalanche of comfort blanket TV on ITV, with a double dollop of nostalgic Sunday drama seeing The Durrells (8pm) continue with 4.2 million viewers and a 19% share while Home Fires (9pm) netted 4.4 million viewers and a 20% share.
Paranoid family drama Undercover (BBC One, 9pm) was watched by 4.2 million viewers and a 19% share while Channel 4’s Indian Summers (9pm) brought in 775,000 viewers and a 3% share.
Over on BBC Two, Golf: The Masters 2016 took over the schedule from 6:30pm, with an average audience of 1.9 million viewers staying tuned for five and a half hours to see England’s Danny Willett named the winner, resulting in an 11% 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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