Benidorm Boosts ITV1’s Friday Night Ratings

The return of Johnny Vegas in Benidorm proved to be a ratings winner for ITV1 on Friday night. Filling the slot vacated by under-appreciated Moving Wallpaper, the package holiday comedy pulled in an impressive 6.1 million adult viewers (well above the previous weekly total of around three million).

The show gave ITV1 its third biggest audience behind Emmerdale and Coronation Street, with viewing figures of 7.3 million for the former and 9.4 and 8.8 million for the latter’s two editions.

Despite being a two-hour broadcast for essentially a 20-minute event, ITV1’s coverage of The Boat Race 2008 proved popular with viewers on Saturday afternoon. An average audience of 4.2 million people tuned into the 154th meeting between Oxford and Cambridge, peaking at 6.7 million between 5.15pm and 5.30pm during the race’s climax. This comfortably beat BBC One’s Final Score and the BBC News, which had ratings of 2.2 million and 2.9 million respectively.

Later on Saturday night, BBC One’s I’d Do Anything saw off ITV1’s movie premiere of Charlie And The Chocolate Factory to win the early evening primetime ratings battle. The first week of ‘Nancy’ eliminations attracted an average adult rating of 5.8 million, compared to 4.8 million for the adaptation of the Roald Dahl classic. Biggest audience of the night went to Casualty, airing during the second hour of ITV1’s movie premiere (watched by 6.6 million).

Sunday night saw good ratings for ITV1’s Nanny Macphee and Heartbeat, which had audiences of 4.6 and 6.5 million respectively. Over on BBC One, Antiques Roadshow, Tiger – Spy In The Jungle and Casualty 1907 proved a hit with viewers (respectively gaining audiences of 5.7, six and 6.4 million).

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