BBC One wins Tuesday with Silent Witness and EastEnders
Tuesday night brought a giant dollop of ghastly closure to many anxious viewers as Silent Witness returned for a second consecutive night.
Wrapping up the second half of the most recent case, Dr Nikki, her fabulous hair and the ever-diminishing supporting cast of well-spoken men raced against time to stop London’s latest killer.
The fourth episode of the eighteenth series (and the tenth overall for the current protagonist Dr Nikki, played by Emilia Fox) kicked off at 9pm on BBC One and saw the forensic pathology team hunt down a murderer who apparently selected his victims on the tube.
Launching with an audience of 6.7 million viewers at the start of January, Monday night’s fresh new case was hampered by a certain other detective show on ITV, with the first half of the current story falling to 5.5 million viewers.
Without the distraction of Broadchurch on the other side, yesterday’s typically tension-fuelled conclusion easily secured the 9pm slot with 6.3 million viewers tuning in to see the show’s latest unhinged soul shaving his entire body, resulting in a 27% share.
At the same time, BBC Two also offered up a second successive night of the same content, as it attempted to investigate and educate the nation about obese eating habits, with the middle part of three instalments of What’s the Right Diet for You? A Horizon Special at 9pm.
The show, in which stickly thin presenter/psychologist Tanya Byron wandered through a herd of larger folk, delivering a piece-to-camera while they scoffed around her, had a very similar set up to the recent Cat Watch 2014: The New Horizon Experiment.
Even setting up shop in the same ‘nerve centre’, producers replaced photos and video feeds of cute kitties rolling around with images of the 75 overweight volunteers eating. Thankfully, this time, the subjects weren’t forced to wear GoPro cameras around their necks.
Having already suffered the indignity of being divided into subgroups of Constant Cravers, Emotional Eaters and the top dogs, Feasters, last night saw the subjects have ultrasound scans on their bowels immediately after eating their allotted meal of kidney beans.
After 1.9 million viewers tuned in for the starters on Monday, last night’s mains retained an impressive 1.8 million viewers and an 8% share. It remains to be seen if the same amount will hang around for the third course tonight.
Meanwhile on ITV, Julia Bradbury was once again tasked to fill up an hour of the commercial broadcaster’s prime time slot by marvelling at all things British in propaganda piece The Wonder of Britain (9pm).
1.7 million viewers tuned in for the industrial revolution-themed episode in which Julia visited town halls, looked at canals and spoke to local ‘characters’, resulting in a 7% share.
Over on Channel 4, the worst thing ever to happen to the town of Luton continued apace as the second series of 24 Hours in Police Custody (9pm) continued.
Tuesday’s slice of the fall of society focused on two girls who appeared to be enjoying the TV cameras a bit too much, despite starting a fight with some blokes on a night out. 1.3 million viewers tuned in to tut and despair, resulting in a 5% share.
Over on Channel 5, it was Celebrity Big Brother‘s time to shine as presenter Emma Willis once again did her best to convince viewers around the country that something of importance was actually happening.
Last night’s live show, a last minute replacement for live evictions, saw model Cami Li win immunity, bringing in over 2 million viewers and a 9% share.
Earlier at 8pm, Alan Titchmarsh got very excited about strangers’ domestic rears in Britain’s Best Back Gardens (ITV) which secured over 2 million viewers and a 10% share.
Holby City did much better over on BBC One, with over 5 million viewers and a 24% share.
Even earlier at 7pm, the Bartons were the cause of more violence on Emmerdale (ITV) as Ross beat someone else up just for kicks, bagging 6.3 million viewers and a 31% share.
But it was the nearly 30-year old EastEnders (BBC One, 7:30pm) that secured Tuesday’s biggest audience, tuning in to see Jay Brown make the ultimate mistake by being nice to Ben Mitchell.
7.7 million viewers watched as Ben once again made a serious gaffe by confusing his best mate’s concern for something a little friendlier, with the cringe-inducing moment securing a 36% 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.
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