BBC One Edges Easter Viewing Battle
Thursday evening set the scene for the rest of the holiday period, with BBC One taking on ITV1 in a battle for viewers.
ITV1 aired the big match, which saw Tottenham Hotspur take on Spanish side Sevilla in a UEFA cup quarter-final, and a peak of 4.1 million adults watched the plucky north-Londoners come unstuck against their superior opposition.
However, BBC One topped that by showing three shows guaranteed to bring in an audience. EastEnders, on at 7.30pm had a peak audience of 7.4 million adults, this was followed by Waterloo Road which brought in a peak of 4.5 million adults, and then came camp fun-fest Hotel Babylon, which had a peak of 5.3 million adults.
Good Friday saw Starsky And Hutch take on Emma with the BBC One movie wiping the floor with ITV1’s Jane Austen adaptation.
The hilarious movie, starring Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller, had a peak audience of 4.8 million adults, and an average audience of 4.7 million across its hour and a half running time.
Starting slightly earlier than the big movie, at 8.30pm, was, to give it its full title, Jane Austen’s Emma. The repeat of Andrew Davies’ 1997 production had a peak audience of 3 million adults glued to the comic tale of misconstrued romance.
On Saturday it was the turn of the big reality shows to strut their stuff. ITV1’s Grease Is The Word began its attempt to find the next Danny and Sandy, with star panelists David Ian, Sinitta, Brian Friedman and David Gest passing their verdicts on the hopefuls.
It managed to draw a peak of 3.8 million adult viewers (a 26.6% share) in its 6pm timeslot, although this was surpassed by BBC One’s Any Dream Will Do, which brought in a very healthy 5.7 million adults to its second episode.
The BBC One show follows on from the success of How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?, although whereas that show attempted to find a young lady to warble her way through The Sound Of Music, Any Dream is concerned with finding the leading cast members in Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Joseph And His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.
Prior to the quest for Joseph, BBC One aired the latest instalment of the thrill a minute sci-fi show, Doctor Who, starring Scottish hunk David Tennant.
It had a peak audience of 5.8 million adults, down from a peak of 7 million adults for the previous week’s series opener.
BBC One came up trumps again on Sunday with its 60s set crime drama George Gently going head-to-head with ITV1’s harrowing dramatsisation of the Peter Falconio murder case, Murder In The Outback.
George Gently followed our hard drinking hero as he set about avenging his wife’s murder, and a peak of 6.2 million adults watched the action unfold.
Murder In The Outback, meanwhile, also on at 9pm but half an hour longer than the BBC One offering, could only manage a peak of 3.8 million adults.
Finally, Easter Monday saw a couple of tasty treats, as ITV1 offered up another instalment of the David Jason vehicle Diamond Geezer, in which the comedy icon played an ageing crook looking for one last big score, and an interview with one of the Iran hostages, Faye Turney.
The Faye Turney interview, a Tonight With Trevor McDonald Special brought in an average of 4.1 million adults, whilst Diamond Geezer had a peak of 5.9 million adults.
BBC One fought back with its own programme starring actors of a more mature vintage, with Old Tricks, starring Dennis Waterman bringing in a peak of 6.9 million adults.
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, ITV2 and Sky One.
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