TV Overnights: Peak-hour Holby City wins the top spot

BBC One’s long-running hospital drama Holby City proved to be a popular choice for the 9pm to 10pm peak-hour slot.

The hour-long episode, which normally sits in the pre-watershed 8pm to 9pm slot, pulled in more than 4.5 million peak viewers and a 20% average audience share during the all-important peak-hour, despite competition from ITV1’s new Homes from Hell series.

The first in the four-part ITV1 documentary series, which follows the stories of British people who have invested in the Dubai property boom and have been left with nothing, pulled in 3.7 million average viewers and a 17.1% audience share during the 9pm to 10pm slot.

Meanwhile, the remaining terrestrial channels fell a fair way behind BBC One and ITV1.  BBC Two’s Gareth Malone Goes to Glyndebourne secured third place with 1.8 million average viewers and a 8.5% share, while Channel 4’s final The Untold Invasion of Britain and Five’s 9 o’clock film Cleaner both settled on a lower 1.3 million average viewers.

Earlier on in the evening, the soaps dominated the pre-watershed ratings.  BBC One’s Eastenders managed to lead with 8.2 million peak viewers compared to ITV1’s Coronation Street‘s 6.8 million peak and Emmerdale‘s high of 6.1 million viewers.

BBC One also came top with its day-time schedule of Wimbledon coverage.  Over 2.6 million peak viewers tuned in to watch the ladies’ singles semi-finals.  The full Wimbledon programme pulled in 1.8 million average viewers and a 20.8% share between 1.45pm and 6pm.

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.