Channel 4’s questionable anthropology doc The Tribe nets 1.4m
Having already made documentary series about every minute aspect of modern life, last night saw Channel 4 up its game slightly by taking its fixed-rig camera set-up to the outskirts of Ethiopia in an ethically questionable effort to bring The Tribe (9pm) to prime time viewers’ living rooms.
The new four-part show featured the surprisingly media-friendly Ayke Mukos clan, who sat back, let the cameras roll and got on with their day.
Humour also featured prominently as cantankerous tribe leader Ayke had to deal with his two wives and all the responsibilities that come with a multi-generational family.
Featuring the now standard 24 Hours in A&E-format, the first episode featured candid interviews with the sprawling family, intercut with the observational scenes of everyday life, and managed to come across significantly less intrusive as the premise sounded.
An audience of 1.4 million viewers tuned in to see the clan balance traditions with technology, filing out of their mud huts with mobile phones in hand. As the most cultural of Channel 4’s docs in a very long time, the show ended up providing the broadcaster with its biggest audience of the day and a 7% share.
Preceding the ground-breaking event an hour before was the slightly less innovative, Domino’s Pizza: A Slice of the Action (8pm) – a one-off documentary following in the prestigious footsteps of Greggs: More Than Meats The Pie (Sky One), The Billion Dollar Chicken Shop (BBC One) and Iceland Foods: Life in The Freezer Cabinet (BBC Two).
The show had the hard task of balancing that fine line of trying to represent the actual real world we all live in, while at the same time attempting to fluff up the big business at the centre, by focusing on those lovely hard-working types that dish out the pizzas.
An audience of 914,000 viewers tuned in to see the hour long advertisement – littered with Domino’s adverts in between – resulting in a 5% share.
Back in the 9pm slot, BBC Two debuted an atmospheric adaptation of the Iain Banks novel Stonemouth, a tale of a Stewart who returns home to his small Scottish town after years in London when his friend commits suicide.
Naturally, there was more to the death than met the eye, with the first half of the brooding, grey-toned story securing an impressive 2.1 million viewers and an 11% share.
Over on BBC One Dr Chris van Tulleken and Jasmine Harman were back to milk one more hour of filler from The Truth About Your Teeth (9pm). After securing 2.9 million viewers last week with their shocking facts about our choppers, last night saw 2.2 million viewers care to go back for more, netting an 11% share.
Likewise, ITV’s current workplace doc Britain’s Busiest Airport – Heathrow (9pm) launched last week with 3 million viewers, with last night’s unnecessary trip to the UK’s busiest travel hub falling slightly to 2.8 million viewers and a 14% share.
Speaking of unnecessary, the sixteenth series of Big Brother (8pm) continued to be a thing on Channel 5 and was watched by 1.4 million viewers and a 7% share.
Back to 8pm and the latest dollop of consumer outrage via the unholy union of Anne Robinson, Matt Allwright and Chris Hollins continued, with Watchdog (BBC One) getting all hot and bothered about subpar teeth whitening products. 3.2 million viewers joined in on the upset, resulting in an 11 % share.
At the same time, Springwatch 2015 (BBC Two, 8pm) came to an end after 12episodes. 2.1 million viewers joined Chris, Michaela and that other bloke for one last glare at the badgers and whatnot, translating to an 11% share.
Even earlier a double helping of Emmerdale (ITV) took the second and third spot, with the 7pm episode netting 4.7 million viewers and a 30% share while the 8pm visit retained the audience of 4.7 million but saw the share fall to 26%.
But it was BBC One’s flagship soap that won the top spot, with Masood spending the evening taking clandestine pictures of a little girl who may or may not be his granddaughter.
Masood’s obsessive search helped EastEnders (7:30pm) secure 5.7 million viewers and a 33% 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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