TV Overnights: Dark drama Blackout brings 4.5m to BBC One
The drama came thick and fast last night as the main broadcasters seemingly tried to welcome back anyone they might have alienated in the last three weeks. Dramas don’t come much heavier than Blackout (BBC One, 9pm), a psychological thriller set in a grim, dank city up North and shot through a noirish, dystopian lens for good measure.
4.5 million viewers tuned in for the first episode in the three part drama as Christopher Eccleston woke up from a heavy bout of drinking, with his shirt covered in blood. The tension-dense drama pulled in a 19.6% share for the channel.
Also aiding the summer football cleansing process was a double helping of Coronation Street (ITV 1), which saw the return of Lloyd Mullaney after, erm…another career break. The first episode at 7:30pm saw fortune bring Steve McDonald and Lloyd back together again, like star crossed lovers caught in each other’s gravity. As it turns out Lloyd wasn’t very successful in leaving Manchester behind; depressingly the rival cab company was as far as he got.
The reunification of Corrie’s comedy double act improved on Friday night’s earlier episode by 1.7 million viewers. Without any late-running Federer match to contend with the drama attracted 8.4 million viewers, securing a 37% share and pulling in the biggest audience of the day.
Straight afterwards on BBC One was EastEnders (8pm) which also saw a bump in viewers since Friday’s episode, up 1 million to a total of 7.6 million for last night’s instalment. While Ian Beale is wandering the wilderness of East London, the whole ‘Ben Mitchell: Heather Slayer‘ storyline has been put on the back burner for a while. Instead, viewers will be given an even greater mystery to wrap their minds around: who’s shagging Kat?
The storyline kicked off last night as Kat took over management of the Queen Vic’s football team, using her womanly allures to recruit strong, young, fertile men. Will the nations tune in in hordes to see whose grubby hands are all over Alfie Moon’s woman? Monday’s instigation of this epic narrative pulled in a 33% audience share.
The second episode of Coronation Street at 8:30pm didn’t win as big an audience as the earlier instalment but still managed to beat EastEnders, with 7.7 million viewers tuning in.
While Euro 2012 may now be a distant memory there is still plenty of Wimbledon 2012 to get excited about. Once again, the BBC had it covered with day 7’s action split up through the two main channels. The earlier coverage on BBC One saw Roger Federer beat Xavier Malisse with an average audience of 2.5 million viewers watching the four hour coverage. While most competitors might change year to year, the summer rain is one thing that can be guaranteed and the Murray game was rained off around 5pm. It was back over to BBC Two at 5:50pm for the Serbian showdown between Novak Djokovic and Viktor Troicki. The programme netted 2 million viewers, peaking at 2.9 million people tuning in for Djokovic’s victory.
Meanwhile, over on Sky Atlantic at 9pm, Norwich’s favourite son returned for a second week in a row. Alan Partridge On Open Book with Martin Bruce was a hybrid of an in-joke and a blatant unapologetic plug for last years ‘autobiography’ I, Partridge: We Need to Talk About Alan. But Sir Alan of Partridge can get away with this because it means he’s back on our screens.
Last night’s fake book review programme pulled nearly half the amount of viewers than last week’s fake documentary, with a total audience of 137,000 viewers. It will be interesting to see how the audience is affected next week when the Master DJ returns ‘proper’ with Mid Morning Matters.
Repeating the trick of cutting the audience in half was Veep which aired immediately afterwards. Last night saw Vice-President Selena Meyer briefly realise her potential as the President was taken down with chest pains but it was not long before the bickering and profanity kicked off. The second episode of the political satire was watched by 43,000 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.