Cameron’s watery exit secures 7.6 million for ITV
Thursday night saw Emmerdale – the little soap that could – step up its campaign for national dominance. After Wednesday’s hour long special, last night brought two helpings of small town drama with Coronation Street’s absence creating the perfect storm for ITV.
The siege in the Woolpack continued at 7pm as – would you believe it? – the residents had to deal with a freak storm at the same time. 7.5 million viewers tuned in for the first half an hour as the flood waters began to rise, securing a 37% share.
Unusually for a soap double bill the second episode at 8pm actually saw the audience increase as crazed psychopath Cameron got even more desperate. 7.6 million viewers watched as Cameron met his end in damp and dramatic scenes, resulting in a 34% share.
The final struggle between Debbie and the troublesome ex also set Twitter alight, with the show generating 4,500 tweets per minute. Whether the rural soap can continue to soar now that the main attraction lies in a watery grave at the bottom of the Woolpack’s cellar is anyone’s guess.
Meanwhile, EastEnders treated viewers to more scenes of melancholy and depression as Ronnie Mitchell adjusted to life without Jack. Floating about the square like a peroxide spectre, the prodigal Mitchell sister was an easy target for mockney bad boy Carl.
The trodden upon soap was easily defeated by Emmerdale‘s aquatic action with only 6.2 million viewers tuning in for another in a long running sequence of bad days for Ronnie. The London soap brought in a 30% share and was the most watched programme in its timeslot.
Later at 9pm BBC One offered viewers a chance to explore the mythical group known as the working class – thankfully without anyone having to set eyes on Albert Square. 9pm brought the second episode of Truckers, an introspective drama dealing with a varied group of truck drivers designed to appeal to a broad audience. They even had lady truckers and everything!
Kind of like that lotto drama a while back, each week an episode focuses on a different sorry individual in the haulage company. Last night it was the turn of clueless new boss Martin as he struggled to win over his staff and was watched by 2.3 million viewers.
Which meant it was definitely ITV’s night – the second episode of slick period drama Breathless performed a little better, with 2.7 million viewers tuning in to catch up with the high flying London-based gynaecologists.
At the same time on BBC Two, another period piece was playing out, but the musty world of Peaky Blinders (9pm) felt like it was set in an alternative universe to glossy aesthetics of Breathless. The final episode of the critically acclaimed criminal hijinks attracted an audience of 1.7 million viewers. An audience share of 8% watched as Birmingham’s toughest set of rogues faced off against their mortal enemy.
Over on Channel 4 there were gangs of a different type terrorising the screens on Educating Yorkshire (9pm). Once again the exploitive show focused on one misbehaving little nightmare and gave him the platform to become a reality star. The penultimate episode of the divisive fly on the wall documentary was Channel 4’s best performing show of the day, netting 2.5 million viewers and a 12% share.
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.