England clash sees first drop in viewers for The Missing
After dominating for two days running, last night night saw rival broadcasters breathe a sigh of relief as a friendly international match pushed ITV’s I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! out of the schedules for the night.
Which was very good news for BBC One’s latest delve into dark drama, The Missing (9pm), a show which has had consistent success over the last few weeks. The fourth episode of the brooding thriller saw James Nesbitt’s bereft dad edge a little closer to the truth behind his son’s disappearance.
The gripping-but-grim show opened up with 5.8 million viewers at the end of September and, impressively, managed to carry that same volume through for the following two weeks.
Perhaps it was the England game on ITV or the fact that an eight episode series can only keep the tension going for so long, but last night’s slice of the drama heralded the first time there has been a fall in audience.
A little under 5 million viewers tuned in to see the latest developments, with James Nesbitt’s discovery that there are even more missing characters helping net a 21% share.
Over on Channel 4, the fabricated nonsense of You Can’t Get the Staff came to a sorry end at 9pm. The fifth and final episode saw a lady who runs an agency for ‘elite staff’ score the mother of all self-promotions as she herself searched for a new lackey in last night’s show.
953,000 viewers tuned in for the last chance to see people with money attempt to pass as a cartoon version of posh, netting a 4% share and representing a -34% fall on the first episode.
At the same time on Channel 5 was the third and penultimate episode of traumatising documentary about struggling new-borns, Miracle Babies (9pm). 821,000 viewers – a slight fall on the initial audience – tuned in to hear tales of the courageous and tragic from Liverpool Women’s Hospital, netting a 3% share and Channel 5’s biggest hit of the day.
Earlier at 8pm, and the latest episode of Holby City (BBC One) performed admirably, and much like it’s sister show, Casualty, secured its usual and solid audience of 4.1 million viewers and a 17% share.
Over on BBC Two, the never-ending competitive-cooking onslaught of MasterChef: The Professionals continued at 8pm. 2.7 million viewers watched as another five new contestants entered the kitchen for a large injection of culinary stress, resulting in an 11% share.
Meanwhile, Channel 4 continued to break down barriers by turning mental illness into a jaunty show were viewers point and laugh and the subjects have to pretend to learn something.
The penultimate episode of Obsessive Compulsive Cleaners‘ third series followed the well-trodden format (Wife Swap, but with cleaning products instead of spouses) and brought in 1.2 million viewers and a 5% share.
At 7:30pm, Live International Football took over ITV’s evening schedule as Scotland faced off against England in a just-for-the-hell-of-it friendly. An average audience of 6.2 million tuned in for the entire three hour coverage which resulted in a 3-1 victory for England, resulting in a 27% share.
The game actually peaked at 7.6 million viewers (a 31% share) around 8:30pm, in the final 15 minutes of the first half which saw England’s Oxlade-Chamberlain score the game’s first goal.
The football also only left room for one singular ITV soap experience, with Emmerdale (7pm) exclusively representing the commercial broadcaster’s more frothy produce. 6 million viewers tuned in to see drugs and thieving take up most of the 30 minutes from the UK’s quaintest rural community, netting a 30% share.
Straight afterwards on BBC One, EastEnders (7:30pm) took Tuesday’s biggest audience as Mick Carter went off to a caravan park to locate his sister Shirley with help from his nephew Deano (his secret mum and his secret half-brother who secretly raped his wife, respectively. Because this is EastEnders).
6.6 million viewers tuned in to see the boys eventually locate the Albert Square bruiser, deepening the Carter family mystery and resulting in a 30% 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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