Lewis Remains Strong Whilst Primeval Sheds A Million
The Inspector Morse detective spin-off, Lewis, managed to retain its viewing audience of around 7.2 million from the series debut last week, giving ITV1 a 32% share between 9pm and 11pm last night.
Adult viewers remained with star Kevin Whately as the super sleuth detective, now teamed up with a new partner, as he and his team investigated the death of a university student.
On at the same time on BBC One, David Tennant’s moving portrayal of a brain-damage victim, was seen by more than 4.7 million adults.
The channel gained a 20.2% audience share for Recovery, where the Doctor Who star showed the struggle of a man and his family coming to terms with a totally different life, after he was hit by a car whilst crossing the road.
Bridget Jones’ Diary on Channel 4 proved reasonably popular, with more than 2.6 million adults tuning in for the romantic comedy classic, giving C4 an 11.6% share at the time.
Earlier in the evening, ITV1’s Wild At Heart raced to the top spot over BBC Two’s Top Gear. Almost seven million adults on average (28.4%) caught up with the latest adventures of the Trevanion family in South Africa, whilst almost 6.7 million (27.4%) watched Clarkson and Co. expand their collective carbon footprint.
BBC One’s Rough Diamond, the family drama set against the backdrop of the horseracing business in rural Ireland, struggled against the two heavyweights in the timeslot. The show, which started in early February this year, was seen by 3.6 million adults on average (14.7%), down on last week’s figure of 3.8 million.
Dancing On Ice continued to perform well for ITV1 on Saturday night, taking an average adult audience of more than 7.8 million (38%) for its first instalment, and more than 6.6 million (31%) for the skate-off.
The channel’s other big hope for winter, Primeval, shed around one million viewers from its debut three weeks ago (see Lost’s Audience Still Out At Sea On Sky One). Around 5.1 million adults stuck with the action-packed sci-fi adventures of a team of scientists battling prehistoric creatures that appear through rips in time, compared to the 6.1 million who tuned in to the first episode.
Graham Norton’s camp variety talent contest, When Will I Be Famous?, managed an audience of around 4.6 million for BBC One, with the results show netting almost 3.2 million during Dancing On Ice‘s skate-off.
Casualty fared better than Ant and Dec’s Pokerface, with the BBC One hospital drama gaining around 6.5 million adult viewers (30%) and the ITV1 game show luring more than 4.6 million (21.5%).
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