Coronation Street shines as World Cup takes a rare night off
For only the second time since the FIFA World Cup 2014 kicked off three weeks ago, Wednesday brought a football-free schedule and allowed TV viewers a short but merciful return to programming normality.
Instead of Gary Lineker or Adrian Chiles’ trustworthy mugs guiding us through 90 minutes of kick about, viewers were instead treated to equally fascinating profiles of John Torode and Gregg Wallace as they cast their judgment over the ridiculously famous and beautiful.
The ninth series of Celebrity MasterChef (BBC One, 9pm) continued with some woman from Holby, a singer from the eighties, Ewan McGregor’s former BFF, Sean Connery’s son and a Christopher Biggins all attempting to cook some fish and chips while entertaining a prime time audience.
The ‘A list’ version of the long-running culinary cook off easily secured the biggest audience in the 9pm slot, with 3.8 million viewers and a 19% share tuning in.
At the same time, ITV was busy investigating The Betrayers (9pm), an alarmist documentary about people being deceived by a close loved one. 2.1 million viewers tuned in to hear sorry tales about love being used as a ruse, resulting in a 10% share.
On BBC Two, Coast Australia (9pm) reached its penultimate episode as wandering vagabond Neil Oliver (who manages to get excited about everything) and his team reached Darwin in the country’s Northern Territory.
As usual, fluff pieces from various members of the presenting team and the amazing HD vistas were frequently interrupted with sad stories from the past, haunting viewers with sad music and reminders of the World War II. The seventh episode of the series pulled in an audience of 1.6 million viewers and an 8% share.
Channel 4 was busy welcoming more life into the world with the latest episode of One Born Every Minute at 9pm. The sixth series of flesh-tearing torture has performed to the show’s usual standards, with an audience of 1.6 million viewers and an 8% share tuning in for the traumatic experience.
Over on Channel 5, Alex Polizzi returned to an old conquest to churn up some last drops of drama from a warring family in The Hotel Inspector Returns (9pm). Channel 5’s second biggest audience of the day – just over 1 million people – watched as Alex revisited an Essex hotel two years after her original visit.
Straight up afterwards the channels biggest hot, Big Brother (10pm), secured 1.2 million viewers and a 7% share.
Earlier at 8pm, Dawn O’Porter continued in her quest to make everything she does feels like some sort of cynical cross-synergy advertorial as glam ‘modern’ women got together to try on some clothes. This week This Old Thing: The Vintage Clothes Show (Channel 4) championed the discarded cloths of the 80s, winning 940,000 viewers and a 5% share.
All Star Mr & Mrs did manage to pull in 3.4 million viewers at 8pm on ITV but it was the BBC’s Watchdog, Anne Robinson, that won the time slot with 3.9 million viewers and a 20% share.
While there was no football to be found, the schedule wasn’t entirely sport-free. Highlight reel, Today at Wimbledon (BBC Two, 8pm) brought in 1.5 million viewers and a 8% share while seven hours of live coverage of Wimbledon 2014 (BBC Two, 1pm) secured an audience of 1.2 million. BBC One managed to dedicate four hours and fifteen minutes to the coverage at 1:45pm, with an average audience of 2.2 million viewers.
At long last, the soaps were back to bask in their former glory, with the dark grey cloud of the World Cup dissipating for at least one day. Emmerdale (ITV) was up first at 7pm, with a little over 5 million viewers and a 29% share catching up with the latest drama from the UK’s most charming rural outpost.
Doing slightly better was Coronation Street (ITV, 7:30pm) straight afterwards, bagging Wednesday’s number one spot with relative ease. 6.3 million viewers tuned in to spend half an hour in the frosty company of restaurateurs and former passion partners Nick and Leanne Tilsley.
The latest example of extremely unprofessional work behaviour in the hospitality sector locked in a 33% share.
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