TV Overnights: Coronation Street Live wins a high of 13.5m viewers
ITV1’s hour-long live episode of Corrie – to mark the soap’s 50th anniversary – attracted a peak audience of more than 13.5 million viewers between 8pm and 9pm last night.
In what has been a successful ratings week for both ITV1 and Coronation Street, the live programme went off without a hitch, pulling in more than 13.3 million average viewers and an impressive 49.7% audience share during the pre-watershed slot.
Viewers found out the fate of a few residents, although tonight’s episode will reveal the final fatalities in what was billed as ‘a wedding and four funerals’. Ashley and Molly both passed away during last night’s hour-long special, while Peter’s life is still hanging in the balance – although he did manage to wed Leanne in an emergency ceremony before his potentially final words “till death us do part”.
However, the lives of Charlotte, Rita, Sunita, baby Jack and Fiz’s newborn are still touch and go, and so the drama continues. Last night certainly did the soap justice – “one of the best hours of action-packed, emotionally fraught high-octane drama we’ve seen in years,” said one TV review.
The live Corrie wasn’t the only programme to dominate ITV1’s ratings during last night’s prime time slot – an hour long Emmerdale secured the top spot between 7pm to 8pm with 8.4 million viewers and a 33.9% average audience share, while the second part of Coronation Street: 50 Years, 50 Moments documentary dominated the peak-hour ratings with more than seven million peak viewers and a 26.2% share.
As such, ITV1’s rival terrestrial channels didn’t get much of a look in, although BBC One had a fairly decent run with Eastenders, The Apprentice: The Final Five, Have I Got News for You and Live at the Apollo.
Eastenders pulled in the highest rating figures for the BBC – peaking with more than six million – although Have I Got News for You was not far behind with 5.5 million peak viewers.
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.