Comic Relief Bake Off wraps up with 6.6m on BBC One
This second Comic Relief series (the fourth special spin-off when including two editions of Sports Relief) is actually the first to air on BBC One after the main show’s fifth series made the big leap from BBC Two in August last year, with extremely remarkable results.
The biggest audience in the 8pm slot gravitated towards BBC One to watch the fourth and final group of surprisingly familiar faces facing down three sets of tricky challenges.
An audience share of 31% watched as the token BBC property (this week Chris Moyles) was joined by Victoria Wood and Fonejacker Kayvan Novak, with insanely successful TV presenter Alexa Chung bringing some youth appeal.
Back in January 2014, the finale of The Great Sport Relief Bake Off secured 4.3 million viewers on BBC Two, while the tense end to the fifth series of The Great British Bake Off secured a stratospheric 12.3 million viewers in October 2014.
Naturally last night’s entry didn’t quite manage to hit such heights, although a suitablyimpressive 6.6 million viewers tuned in to see Victoria Wood (the only one who seemed to know how the show actually worked) revel in baking glory, proving that even without the everyday human drama element, the escapist experience is still essential viewing for many.
While that wrapped up, BBC One’s other charitable offering only reached the halfway point in its equally short run. The second instalment of The People’s Strictly for Comic Relief saw another trinity of normal folk take to the dancefloor in order to raise some money.
Last night’s entry secured nearly the exact same audience as last week, despite not having the distracting sight of Madonna’s cape fear on the other side, resulting in 3.7 million viewers and an 18% share.
Over on ITV, the commercial broadcaster finally pulled millions of long-suffering fans out of their whirlpool of anguish and despair by unleashing a brand new series of Big Star’s Little Star (8pm) onto the world.
The show, in which desperate celebrities drag their innocent young children onto national TV for five paltry seconds of exposure, featured ex-EastEnder Joe Swash who has been relegated to the netherworld of digital companion shows on BBC Three and ITV 2.
Fronted by affable robot Stephen Mulhern, the new hijinks pulled in 3 million viewers and a 14% share for ITV.
Also making a return after a prolonged sabbatical was glum buzzkill DCI Banks at 9pm on ITV, who was busy starrng despondently at his latest grey-hued crime scene. Last night’s slice of downtrodden Yorkshire crime saw Banks investigate the murder of an Estonian woman buried alive.
Series three opened up with 5.7 million viewers a year ago but last night’s reappearance saw the audience fall to 4 million viewers and a 20% share.
While this may seem like a significant knock, it probably has more to do with general audience fatigue for this kind of thing – ITV just wrapped up the second run of Broadchurch while attempting to launch yet another period crime drama franchise on Monday.
Despite the uncontainable glut of miserable crime shows cluttering up the schedules, it seems there is always room for an old favourite.
On Channel 4, the latest 24 Hours in A&E (9pm) brought in 1.6 million viewers and an 8% share while Channel 5’s stress inducing My Violent Child: Tearing Us Apart (9pm) secured over 1 million viewers and a 5% share.
Despite all the prime time charitable hoo-haw on BBC One, yesterday’s main soaps – all belonging to ITV – managed to net two of yesterday’s top three spots.
7pm saw Emmerdale secure an audience of 6 million viewers, with the latest bout of agricultural back stabbing netting a 32% share.
After being constantly trounced in the past few weeks by latterly dormant soap EastEnders, Wednesday night’s schedule gave Coronation Street a chance to return to the limelight.
ITV’s flagship soap was watched by 6.8 million viewers – Wednesday’s biggest audience – who tuned in to see Les Dennis’ whole fake son storyline still playing out, resulting in 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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