DanceX Makes A Triumphant Start
Saturday saw BBC One’s new dance show DanceX hit our screens, with host Ben Shephard spurring on top choreographers Arlene Phillips and Bruno Tonioli as they go head-to-head searching for a new dancing and singing group.
The first show in the series, clearly intended for those of us who like nothing better than a passionate paso doble, had a peak audience of 4.8 million adult viewers (a 34.4% share of the audience) in its 7pm slot.
Over on ITV1, there was more reality as Paul Gambaccini and JK and Joel continued their search for a winner of Sing it Back: Lyric Champion 2007.
The show, which sees members of the public singing missing lyrics from the nation’s favourite songs, could only manage a peak audience of 1.9 million adults in its 6.30pm to 7.30pm slot, with viewers clearly not impressed with the amazing feats of memory on display.
On Friday, Big Brother performed really well, as ‘fake week’ came to a thrilling close.
Friday’s instalments of the pulse-raising reality behemoth saw Charley evicted and then sent straight back into the house. The hour long 8.30pm edition had a peak of 4.5 million adults.
The second instalment, on at 10pm for half an hour, saw Charley leave the house, where she was greeted by Davina McCall and a silent crowd wearing bowler hats and holding signs saying “This Is Not An Audience”, in tribute to Belgian surrealist painter René Magritte. The second part of the fake tomfoolery got a peak audience of 4.8 million adults (a 22.5% audience share), easily the biggest audience of the night, even beating BBC One’s New Tricks.
The cops and robbers show beloved of the older generation collared itself a peak audience of 4.1 million adults (a 20.7% audience share).
Over on ITV1 for two hours, from 8.30pm to 10.30pm, was Midsomer Murders, where John Nettles investigated another gruesome murder in the not-so peaceful British countryside. The show attracted a peak audience of 3.7 million adults.
Meanwhile, the second part of crime drama, The Commander, starring Amanda Burton, won the 9pm to 10pm timeslot for ITV1 last night, luring an average of more than 5.7 million adults to the channel.
The programme gave the channel a 25.6% audience share at the time, whilst David Dimbleby’s continuing look at How We Built Britain – which saw our affable host examine the South – drew just over four million on average (17.9%) to BBC One.
Meanwhile, Big Brother gained an average adult audience of more than 3.1 million, a 13.9% share for Channel 4.
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.
ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk Channel 4: 020 7396 4444 www.channel4.com