A quiet Thurs sees BBC Music Awards win 9pm slot on BBC One
Just two days after ITV treated audiences to the lightweight extravagance of the Royal Variety Performance, yesterday saw BBC One pull together a slightly more credible line-up for the nation’s viewing pleasure.
In place of prancing dogs and Kylie’s tired showgirl routine, the second annual BBC Music Awards (8pm) actually featured relatively little award-dispensing, and instead focused on celebrating the sounds of 2015 through a plethora of live performances.
The two hour session was hosted by the ever-resurgent Chris Evans, with help from youth representative Fearne Cotton and featured a decent mix of pop, indie and some of the more successful acts to come off The X Factor production line.
An audience of 2.5 million viewers tuned in to see one last appearance from weathered boy band One Direction, with Rod Stewart popping along to keep other, more seasoned demographics happy and helping the show top the TV Twitter chart.
While the whole event wasn’t even close to rivalling the BRITs, or even the Royal Variety Performance¸ a 13% share was enough to secure yesterday’s 9pm slot for BBC One.
Over on BBC Two, it was time for the last The Last Kingdom (9pm) as Uhtred, Alfred and lots of other long-haired Timotei-longing Saxons faced off against those horrible Danish invaders.
The show launched near the end of October with 2.2 million viewers and neither disappeared without a trace nor shone through word-of-mouth excitement, instead remaining consistent throughout it run.
Last night’s finale secured 1.7 million viewers, with the UK’s origin story netting a 9% share.
At the same time ITV decided to brighten up everyone’s Thursday evening with Britain’s Oldest Crooks (9pm), a documentary which seemed quite light and breezy, but was actually depressing as hell.
1.9 million viewers tuned in to meet an 80 year old jail bird, while questioning what really is the best course of punishment. The interesting array of characters and their sad situations helped secure a 10% share.
Meanwhile, Channel 4 was at it again with 18 Kids and Counting (9pm), the type of programming scientifically designed to push those buttons, although it didn’t quite hit Channel 5-levels of welfare exploitation TV.
1.7 million viewers and a 9% share tuned in to marvel at the madness/tweet knee-jerk reactionary comments.
Meanwhile, Channel 5 was clearing its head and spending some time in the great outdoors with Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild UK (9pm). 1.4 million viewers tuned in to meet a New Yorker who relocated to a small Scottish island, resulting in a 7% share.
Earlier at 8pm, MasterChef: The Professionals netted its usual 2.7 million viewers (a 13% share) on BBC Two while creepy child-spying show The Secret Life of 6 Year Olds secured 1.3 million viewers and a 6% share for Channel 4.
There were more enviable scenes in Alex Polizzi’s Italian Islands (Channel 5, 8pm), with 724,000 viewers and a 4% share attempting to brighten up a gloomy evening.
At 8:30pm on ITV, Paul O’Grady: For the Love of Dogs saw the nation’s other celebrated Queen pop along to Battersea to open up a few new kennels.
4.2 million viewers watched as HRH found the time for the dog charity yet, tellingly, hasn’t bothered to attend the Royal Variety Performance in three years, resulting in an 20% share.
Earlier, ITV threw up a double helping of Emmerdale madness, with 5.8 million (a 31% share) and 5.4 million viewers (a 27% share) tuning in at 7pm and 8pm, respectively. The thrilling storyline about children burning a birthday cake saw the first episode take the day’s top spot.
The ongoing evil child crisis in EastEnders (BBC One) at 7:30pm saw 5.7 million viewers tuning in, with Jane Beale realising that her parenting decisions over the past two years might actually put her on the sociopath spectrum, resulting in a 29% share.
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. Overnight data supplied by TRP are based on 15 minute slot averages. This may differ from tape checked figures, which are based on a programme’s actual start and end time.
To get all the latest Mediatel Newsline updates follow us on Twitter.