Channel 4’s Gogglebox returns with highest ever opening audience
Friday night saw the return of gimmicky reality show Gogglebox (9pm), which came back for a sixth series while managing to net its biggest début audience yet.
As usual, the very meta situation of people watching people watching TV on their own TVs prompted the live audience to take out a second screen in order to promote the bizarre experience, helping the sixth series opener to top Friday’s TV Twitter chart.
Opening up a rainy Thursday night 1286 days ago with just 732,000 viewers, the past few years have seen the format grow steadily in popularity and a schedule move to prime time Friday night saw Gogglebox capture the public’s attention, while also generating a lot of chat on social media.
By the time the second series landed in September 2013 the audience had grown to 1.3 million viewers, with the fifth series’ début netting 3.3 million viewers back in February of this year.
Friday’s reappearance also brought back the Michael family from Brighton, an acquired taste for sure, after the patriarch’s failed attempt at a political career for UKIP. The cult favourite secured 3.5 million viewers and a 16% share.
On Saturday morning there were probably even more families sitting around and shouting at the TV at Labour Leadership: The Result (BBC Two, 11am), with Jeremy Bernard Corbyn’s arrival netting just 850,000 viewers and an 11% share but was the day’s most tweeted show.
A little bit later there was some more democratic televised voting, although things were a little more dramatised over on The X Factor at 8pm on ITV.
The latest round of built up hopes, shattered dreams, irritating editing and some serious over-sharing sessions was thankfully just an hour and 15 minutes long and brought in Saturdays biggest audience with 7.5 million viewers and a 37% share.
Luckily for fans of big budget karaoke sessions, this was only the first of two helpings of the convoluted soap opera with Sunday’s edition also netting the day’s top spot with 7 million viewers and a 31% share.
Elsewhere on Sunday, there was an hour of Coronation Street (ITV, 7pm) as the dislocated soap brought in 5.7 million viewers and a 28% share.
Elsewhere, BBC One’s sacred Sunday offerings performed to their usual standard with Countryfile (6:30pm) bringing in an audience of 5.2 million viewers and a 28% share, while Antiques Roadshow (7:30pm) was ahead by a few thousand viewers, with 5.2 million and a 24% share.
[advert position=”left”]On BBC Two, Top Gear: Best of Series 22 (8pm) showed off Jeremy Clarkson’s winning personality and Richard Hammond’s ill-advised hair style for the final time, with 1.2 million viewers and a 6% share tuning in to relive the best bits.
There was a heap of drama on offer later in the evening, with BBC One’s feature-length An Inspector Calls (8:30pm) beating off the competition with 5.8 million viewers and a 27% share tuning in for the 1920s-set mystery.
On ITV, The Trials of Jimmy Rose (9pm) came to an end after three outings, with the reformed ex-con drama securing just over 3 million viewers and a 14% share.
On Channel 5, the latest sadness from the Celebrity Big Brother (9pm) house took in the broadcaster’s biggest audience of the day with 1.3 million viewers and a 6% share.
At 10pm, the second spin-off mini-series from Shane Meadow’s This is England debuted with the troubled gang enjoying the dawn of a new hope-filled decade. This is England ’90 (Channel 4) saw Shaun, Lol, Woody and Milky dive head first into funny pills and rave culture, securing 1.6 million viewers and a 7% share.
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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