C4 courts controversy and scores a hit with Benefits Street
Not content on appearing on every talk show in recent memory, Mary Berry was back on our screens last night to gnaw on some under-baked goods all in the name of charity.
Joined once again by Paul Hollywood, the pair were casting their judgement on the offerings of some familiar faces in the self-explanatory titled The Great Sports Relief Bake Off (BBC One, 8:30pm).
Sprinkling in more portions of tomfoolery and disorder than one would usually find in an entire series of the standard show, the first episode of the third series saw Johnny Vaughan fail to turn the oven on for the first two challenges.
On the flipside of the coin, retired cricket player Michael Vaughan had an impressive streak of beginner’s luck, shouting with raucous celebratory glee in Mary’s face whenever he received praise (which is not a standard tactic for non-celebrity competitors).
In the end though, the messy and loud boys were beaten by quietly focused and confident Harry Potter star, Bonnie Wright, who counterbalanced Johnny’s monstrosity with a 3D cake featuring sailing ships. As you do on your first go.
3.7 million viewers tuned in to see Sue Perkins take sole responsibility for hosting duties, upping her quippy comments to outrageous levels and even forced Mary Berry to blush at one point.
The figure was surprisingly lower than the audience the regular show manages to attract, although with little promotion and fanfare it’s more than likely that it simply passed most people by.
The Sports Relief-themed showstopper fiasco helped secure a 15% share, but it remains to be seen if the nation still has a healthy appetite for all things Bake Off when it runs every night this week.
Meanwhile, for those that wanted something completely different, there was I Want My Baby Back (BBC One, 9pm) – a worrying Panorama special scrutinising the practices of the Family Courts and false allegations of abuse. 2.2 million tired and weary viewers chose to spend their Monday night watching the wish-fulfilment fantasy, resulting in a 9% share.
At the same time on ITV, those radical free-thinking women of The Bletchley Circle (9pm) were back, once again poking their pretty noses where they didn’t belong. As typical with all female characters in a period drama, the Famous Four were certainly ahead of their time, spouting opinions and even forming their own theories.
The second episode of the second series saw the plucky can-do gang roll up their sleeves and attempt to save one of their own from a death sentence, with 4 million people and a 16% share tuning in – matching last week’s opening episode exactly.
Over on Channel 5, Celebrity Big Brother (9pm) continued to exist with 1.9 million viewers tuning in to double check, resulting in the broadcaster’s biggest audience of the day.
At the exact same time, Channel 4 was back courting controversy (can’t be held accountable – born edgy, apparently) as Benefits Street (9pm) returned for a second episode (UH OH).
After last week’s episode generated outraged media coverage, death threats on Twitter and police investigations, the broadcaster was back chasing the wrong kind of attention but managed to balance things out slightly by being slightly less evil in the depictions of newly arrived immigrants.
Whether its harmless pandering to pent-up nation or inciting hatred, the show is working a treat for Channel 4. Up from last week’s 3.6 million viewers, the second episode – which again dealt with residents’ day-to-day lives – was watched by 4.3 million viewers, the biggest audience at 9pm.
Not content in securing the prime time slot, the show was also the second most tweeted about show of the day, generating a peak of 1,059 tweets per minute and 45,737 overall.
Earlier on in the day – back in simpler times – scripted drama Emmerdale (ITV, 7pm) brought in 7.2 million viewers and 33% share.
Over on BBC One, EastEnders (8pm) decided to uncharacteristically go against type and sprinkle a little bit of happiness over Carol Jackson and David Wicks, only to characteristically change its mind and diagnose Carol with cancer within half an hour.
The night’s second biggest audience, 7.9 million viewers, tuned in for the devastating news, securing a 32% share.
Monday’s first episode of Coronation Street (ITV, 7:30pm and 8:30pm) was the biggest hit of the entire day, detailing young Todd Grimshaw’s toxic return to the street.
Corrupted by London’s loose morals, Todd was wreaking havoc on former card-carrying homosexual Macus’ life. 8.7 million viewers watched as Todd tempted Maria’s fella with the most painful bout of flirting in soap history, with 7.6 million tuning in for the second part at 8:30pm.
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.