BBC Wins With Charity Shows
Last night was a great night for BBC One, with the channel’s Comic Relief programming proving a big draw for millions of viewers.
At 7pm it was the semi-final of Comic Relief Does Fame Academy, with the celebrity warblers giving it their all to raise buckets of money for charity.
The hour-long show had a peak audience of 7.4 million adults (a 38.8% share), with an average of 5.9 million adults staying tuned all the way through.
Following on straight after Fame Academy was Eastenders, where viewers were perhaps not as startled as Denise was by Kevin’s renewed marriage proposal.
In a rare turn of events, viewers actually switched off when the soap came on. It had a peak of 7.2 million adult viewers, equating to a 34.1% share of viewing.
At 8.30pm, Fame Academy was back on with the results of the viewers phone votes. Cheeky scamp Colin Murray went first, followed by Shaun Williamson, otherwise known as Fat Barry off Eastenders.
An average of 5.1 million adults stayed switched on throughout the show, which left Tara Palmer-Tomkinson and Tricia Penrose to battle it out in tonight’s final, which takes place during the Corporation’s mammoth Comic Relief coverage.
The BBC had not finished its fund-raising endeavours, however, as at 9pm we were treated to Comic Relief Does The Apprentice.
A whole plethora of celebrities, running the gamut from pop-star WAG Cheryl Tweedy to soap-opera hard-man Ross Kemp, battled away in two teams hell-bent on raising some well-needed cash.
A peak of 6.8 million adults watched the action unfold and, like Fame Academy, the show should see many of those viewers return tonight for the grand final.
ITV1 was pretty much kicked into touch by the BBC yesterday, with its UEFA Cup football only getting a peak of 4.2 million adults, probably because the standard of play was less than impressive as Newcastle lost 2-0 to Dutch side AZ Alkmaar.
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.
ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk