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BBC One’s The Zoo defeats ITV’s tough-talking Scott & Bailey

BBC One’s The Zoo defeats ITV’s tough-talking Scott & Bailey

For a second consecutive week Wednesday night saw Manchester’s hardest lady cops Scott & Bailey (ITV) face off against the unmitigating and brutal force of sentimental BBC One family drama Our Zoo in a tight race for the 9pm slot.

The second episode of the crime-solving duo’s fourth series saw Scott & Bailey struggle when one of them received a promotion, all the while trying to deal with old-school male colleagues who botched a cold case that only just became relevant.

Falling from last week’s opening episode of 4 million viewers (which itself was significantly down from the show’s usual standards), an audience of 3.4 million viewers watched as they investigated the discovery of a corpse of a young woman reported missing 23 years ago.

The tough and rooted drama brought in an 18% share for the commercial broadcaster.

But that wasn’t enough to defeat BBC One’s bizarrely-scheduled zoological drama, more suited to Sunday teatime than midweek prime time fare. Regardless, the nostalgic tale about the origins of Chester Zoo has managed to secure a healthy Wednesday night following.

Last night’s slice of stinky caged fun saw the townspeople of Chester turn on Our Zoo, with the third episode securing 4 million viewers – a 19% share and the biggest 9pm audience.

At the same time, the programming was a little more traumatising over on BBC Two as author Martin Sixsmith investigated the Irish Church’s roll in the baby trade in This World: Ireland’s Lost Babies (9pm).

Harking back to issues explored in his recently filmed novel The Lost Child of Philomena Lee¸ Sixsmith (played by Steve Coogan in the film) unearthed more damning evidence against the practices of the Catholic Church as he interviewed some of the thousands of children sent to America for adoption.

1.4 million viewers tuned in to hear the tragic consequences of the separations, resulting in a 7% share.

Over on Channel 4, the 14th series of Grand Designs (9pm) continued with another questionable build by a suitably divided couple. An audience of 1.5 million viewers tuned in to see a GP and his wife build a gigantic spiral shaped building at the bottom of their garden.

The tension between this week’s stressed out couple was palatable but it could only have helped secure the show’s 7% share.

Meanwhile on Channel 5 there was an exciting brand new series of the ‘hit’ show that allows us, the viewers, to see real people at their very lowest ebb, all for some Wednesday night entertainment relief.

The second series of Can’t Pay? We’ll Take It Away! (9pm) saw some debt collectors kick a family out of their decrepit London flat, securing 1.4 million viewers – Channel 5’s biggest audience of the day – and a 6% share.

An hour earlier, the mega success of The Great British Bake Off‘s (BBC One, 8pm) fifth series continued, with the surviving contestants being forced to bake with dreaded pastry. The day’s biggest audience tuned in to see Paul Hollywood ingest a whole chocolate éclair in one quick go, netting 8.3 million viewers and a 37% share.

Over on BBC Two, the fourth and final part of Hotel India (8pm) secured 1.2 million viewers and a 5% share while the Warwick Davis-fronted Celebrity Squares (ITV, 8pm) brought in 2.5 million for its second episode.

Earlier at 7pm, it was the Day of Judgement for Aaron Livesy on Emmerdale, with the rural crime drama securing 5.3 million viewers and a 30% share.

Straight afterwards, poor old Peter Barlow was reliving poor Deirdre’s prison hell as his cell was ransacked, with Coronation Street (7:30pm) bringing in 6.3 million viewers and a 33% share for ITV.

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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