TV Viewing Round-up: May 2012

In the perfect example of ‘losing the battle but winning the war’, the final of ITV1’s Britain’s Got Talent achieved the highest ratings for May. Just under 12.6 million viewers stuck through the two-hour plus marathon on 12 May to see Pudsey the dancing dog go walkies with a £500,000 cash prize (oh and the chance to entertain royalty).

This was in stark contrast to BBC One’s The Voice, which initially had viewers and the media raving about it, with ratings that would make Simon Cowell weep. Yet like The X Factor winner’s career, all good things come to an end, hence only 9.36 million people tuning into the show on 5 May.

Elsewhere national treasure Engelbert Humperdinck’s doomed attempt to find countries within the European Broadcasting Union who actually liked us brought in a respectable audience for BBC1. Nearly 9.1 million viewers tuned into the near three and a half hour Eurovision Song Contest, which saw Swedish act Loreen sweep the board with 17 ‘Douze Points’ and a final total of 372 points.

Chelsea’s somewhat fortunate penalty victory in the final of the UEFA Champions League over Bayern Munich pulled in over 6.9 million viewers for ITV1. This was down from the 8.3 million average viewers that saw Manchester United get outplayed by the then all-conquering Barcelona last year.

Returning drama favourites Silk, Vera and Lewis all pulled in fairly similar ratings this month. BBC1’s courtroom based Silk edged out its ITV1 rivals with a touch under 6.6 million viewers, with the two detective shows attaining audiences of just over 6.5 million.

A clutch of off BBC1 shows helped the corporation to dominate this month’s chart – lottery drama Planet Earth Live (6.1 million); Have I Got News For Your (5.9 million); Countryfile (5.7 million) and No Going Out (5.3 million). Overall the BBC had 14 of the top 20 non-soap related programmes during May 2012.

Bringing up the rear was the return of Michael Apted’s long-running look at the lives of society 56 Up. 5.1 million tuned into the latest edition of the documentary strand based around premise of the Jesuit motto: “Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man”.

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