A Right Royal Ratings Fest
The charity concert for Princess Diana’s 46th birthday, ten years on from her controversial death, attracted an average adult audience of 7.8 million to BBC One yesterday.
The concert, which saw a diverse mix of acts – from the Princess’ faves Duran Duran to Take That, Lily Allen and emo funsters Orson – gave the channel a 42.7% viewing share on average over the day.
The programme peaked at the end of the show, during a cringe worthy routine from comedian Ricky Gervais, as Elton John delayed the finale. When the rocket man eventually emerged to close the show, around 14 million (59.8%) were watching.
Earlier, just over 1.8 million on average watched wannabe WAG, the classy Charley, hurk into a bucket whilst wearing a stripper’s outfit on Channel 4’s Big Brother. The ailing format gave the broadcaster a 7.6% viewing share between 9pm and 10pm, but no doubt viewers will return to the show once they’ve run out of paint to watch drying.
Rome on BBC Two at the same time attracted a marginally higher audience and share (7.7%) than Big Brother. Meanwhile, the dramatic finale of Talk To Me, with Claire’s father’s funeral revealing her affair with Mitch and forcing Mitch to quit his award-winning radio show, drew an average of 2.1 million (8.8%) to ITV1.
Earlier, between 8pm and 9pm, more than 2.4 million (10.6%) joined Coast on BBC Two as Neil Oliver travelled from the beautiful Berwick-upon-Tweed to the oil industry of Aberdeen, whilst almost five million stuck with Heartbeat, giving ITV1 a 21.6% audience share at the time.
BBC One was Saturday night’s big ratings winner, with the finale of Doctor Who, which saw the dishy Doc defeat The Master with the help of travelling companion Martha. The programme gained more than 6.1 million adult viewers on average for the channel, a 34.4% share, before Casualty, which netted 5.8 million (30.8%).
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, ITV2 and Sky One.
BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com Channel 4: 020 7396 4444 www.channel4.com