Bake Off avoids contrived controversy, nets 8.3m for BBC One
Now that everyone’s calmed down and recovered from the outrage sparked by the non-event of last week’s Baked Alaska tragedy, last night meant it was safe to return to the white tent of dreams on The Great British Bake Off (BBC One, 8pm).
With Diana having pulled out of the competition for medical reasons, Wednesday night brought a fresh set of challenges for the remaining contestants as the twee competition reached the halfway mark.
The day’s biggest audience tuned in to see an episode dedicated to pies and tarts, laden with all the usual innuendos fans have come to expect. In total 8.3 million viewers tuned in for the fifth episode of the fifth series, proving the jump to BBC One was a smart move indeed with an impressive 36% share.
Meanwhile on BBC Two, it was time to pay a visit to the luxurious Hotel India (8pm) as more demanding guests descended on the Taj Mahal Palace. An audience of 1.2 million viewers tuned in to see the contrast between the obnoxious guests and surrounding poverty, resulting in a 5% share.
The majority of ITV’s evening schedule was dedicated to a friendly between England and Norway live from Wembley Stadium as fans attempted to brush off the air of disappointment following the team’s World Cup performance.
While Wembley recorded its lowest attendance yet, a home audience of 4.4 million viewers tuned in for the two hours and 45 minutes of coverage, resulting in an average share of 21%. The audience for International Football (7:30pm) actually peaked at 9pm with 5.3 million viewers, around the time Wayne Rooney scored the game’s only goal with a penalty.
9pm saw BBC One launch a new six-part drama based around the origins of Chester’s world-famous zoo. The sentimental 30s-set story easily won its time slot, securing 5 million viewers and a 23% share for the channel.
At the same time BBC Two and Horizon took a peek Inside the Dark Web, uncovering the issue of surveillance from our government, or otherwise. Featuring contributions from Julian Assange and the inventor of the internet himself, Tim Berners-Lee, an audience of 968,000 viewers tuned in to become paranoid wrecks, resulting in a 4% share.
Over on Channel 4, Kevin McCloud was back to irritate stressed out couples for the 14th series of Grand Designs (9pm). The opening episode lashed out the expected doses of schadenfreude and focused on a couple who wanted a Californian villa built on a cliff top in Wales.
Naturally, it wasn’t long before the confident couple were littered with a myriad of the usual problems. An audience of 1.6 million watched as the cliff erosion advanced on their plot, resulting in an 8% share.
Earlier in the evening, Coronation Street (ITV, 7:00pm) secured a relatively low audience, with the slight time change not helping matters.
An audience of a little under six million watched as Peter Barlow continued to take it easy – instead of actually being made to act for his supper, his character continued to lay in a relaxing hospital bed while others rallied around him.
The faintest hint that the whole Tina murder storyline might actually reach a conclusion at some point was enough to bring in a 34% share for the commercial broadcaster.
The Social TV Analytics report is a daily leaderboard displaying the latest social TV analytics Twitter data from SecondSync. The table shows the top UK TV shows as they are mentioned on Twitter, which MediaTel has correlated with the BARB overnight programme ratings for those shows (only viewable to BARB subscribers).
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.
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