EastEnders and Happy Valley lead a strong night for BBC One
BBC One scored a successful evening last night, claiming eight spots in Tuesday’s top 10 shows and securing the 9pm slot with the second series of seriously unhappy regional cop show Happy Valley.
This week’s adventures in small town law enforcement saw an increasingly fragile/determined (it’s complicated) Sergeant Catherine Cawood (Sarah Lancashire) keep all her balls in the air as personal and professional issues came crashing down on top of her.
[advert position=”left”]Returning two weeks ago after an 18 month wait with its best ever ratings (6.5 million viewers), loyalty amongst fans has remained solid, with the second episode dipping slightly before improving again last night.
Yesterday saw the second run hit the halfway mark as Catherine was dragged in front of a psychologist for her recent funeral-related decisions, while a colleague’s increasingly unwise decisions came back to haunt him in the form of Amelia Bullmore’s stiff corpse.
Last night’s return trip to the Yorkshire Dales and the dark recesses of Catherine’s tormented mind secured 6.4 million viewers and a 29% share.
The timeslot’s second biggest player was found over on Channel 4 as a qualified anthropologist ambitious filmmaker delved into the rainforest to meet some new members of society in First Contact: Lost Tribe of the Amazon (9pm).
If the premise sounded a little unethical as prime time entertainment, the classically trained tones of board-threader Robert Lindsay was on hand to guide us through the jungle, with his narration reminding viewers this was a classy and educational, non-exploitative venture.
2.1 million viewers tuned in to greet the clan and find out what drove them out of isolation, resulting in a 9% share.
There were more cheap thrills to be had on ITV’s CCTV extravaganza Car Crash Britain: Caught on Camera (9pm), with the clip show once again letting down the commercial broadcaster in the prime time slot, with just 1.3 million viewers and a 6% share tuning in.
The horror of ‘cheeky’ reality game show The Great British Benefits Handout continued at 9pm on Channel 5 with the third episode seeing the lucky families who received £26,000 in exchange for signing off continue to buy more crap.
920,000 tuned in for the penultimate episode of the exciting social experiment, resulting in a 4% share.
At the same time BBC Two’s new bizarre cluster f**k of other reality shows, Who’s the Boss? (9pm), saw employees gather round a TV (just like that Channel 4 show) in order to critique new candidates (just like that BBC One show about competitive self-promoting soul-vacuumed droids).
708,000 viewers tuned in to see hopefuls put through many difficult situations to sink or swim, resulting in a 3% share.
At 8pm on BBC One, Holby City just had to show up and easily bagged 4.5 million viewers and a 21% share, while BBC Two’s secret shame Back in Time for the Weekend brought in 2.3 million viewers and an 11% share.
On ITV, odd science entertainment show It’s Not Rocket Science (it’s really not) continued at 8pm with 1.6 million viewers and a 7% share.
The ongoing real life drama of The Secret Life of the Zoo continued at 8pm and secured Channel 4’s biggest audience of the day with 2.2 million viewers and a 10% share, while Bargain-Loving Brits in the Sun (8pm) brought in Channel 5’s big audience with 1.1 million viewers and a 5% share.
Emmerdale scored a noticeably low 5.8 million viewers and a 29% share at 7pm on ITV, while BBC One’s EastEnders took Tuesday’s top spot at 7:30pm.
6.6 million viewers tuned in to see Martin Fowler once again come to his senses and leave the cursed borough of Walford for good, resulting in a 32% 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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