BGT grows even stronger, defeats the might of Countryfile
After last week’s sword swallowing madness saw Britain’s Got Talent net the weekend’s biggest audience, the second episode of Simon Cowell’s crowd-pleasing variety show managed to improve on that and secured 2016’s highest audience to date.
Despite bringing in the second lowest series début in its 10 year history, last week’s opening episode proved a huge success for ITV, with a total of 8.1 million viewers tuning in.
Saturday’s one hour and 20 minute helping of random entertainment saw the audience grow to 9.8 million viewers, with the father of a contestant pretending to fall off his chair on the nauseating ‘reaction cam’ helping to draw in an impressive 46% share for ITV.
Elsewhere, BBC One’s big show of the day was Michael McIntyre’s Big Show at 7pm, with the manically enthused, yet insipidly broad, comedian securing 4.8 million viewers and a 27% share with a little help from his close showbiz friends, Tinie Tempah and Michael Ball.
It was a complete change of pace on Sunday as the day’s more sobering prime time offerings kicked off with Countryfile at 7pm on BBC One.
Sunday’s biggest audience, 6.3 million viewers, tuned in to see presenter Anita Rani sit in the darkness in an exhilarating attempt to spot a badger or something, resulting in a 33% share.
But even more nail-biting was the latest instalment of Antiques Roadshow (BBC One) at 8pm, the TV population’s great leveller.
5.6 million viewers watched as Fiona Bruce and her hoard of upper class wheeler dealers descended upon Droitwich to view the oldest piece of glass one specialist had ever seen, resulting in a 25% share.
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Before a deluge of Sunday night drama took over the schedule, Channel 4 managed to squeeze out the second half of shiny HD Hidden Britain by Drones (8pm) which featured a stream of intriguing locations seen from unusual angles.
1.3 million viewers watched as presenter Tony Robinson flew his drone around a ship, a laboratory and a shipwreck, resulting in a 6% share.
Straight up afterwards was the balmy drama of Indian Summers (Channel 4, 9pm) which saw the fancy pants British characters’ lives put in danger by a child with a bomb, bringing in 733,000 viewers and a 5% share.
At the same time on BBC One, twisty-turny family drama Undercover (9pm) reached the halfway point, with the third episode delivering a few more truth bombs for Sophie Okonedo’s Maya.
The thriller, basically about a bunch of people that lie to each other, secured 4.2 million viewers and a 20% share.
Once again, ITV’s line-up of rose-tinted olden time drama secured their timeslots, with the latest episode of get-away-from-it-all fantasy The Durrells (8pm) bringing in 5.5 million viewers and a 25% share, while WI empowerment war drama Home Fires bagged 4.5 million viewers and a 21% share at 9pm.
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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