Friday’s Big Brother Eviction Boosts Channel 4

After more than two weeks on air Big Brother is still proving to be a ratings winner for Channel 4, with 5.1 million viewers tuning in to see the second of this year’s evictions.

Audiences for the show, which saw 27 year-old Justine from Leeds become the latest contestant to get voted out of the Big Brother house, averaged 5.1 million between 10pm and 10.35pm, helping Channel 4 to secure a 24.4% share of the available audience.

At its peak, Friday’s edition of the reality-TV gameshow attracted an audience of 5.3 million, providing advertisers with access to over 2 million ABC1 viewers aged between 16 and 34.

However, this was overshadowed by the concluding part of A Touch Of Frost, which drew an average audience of 5.4 million to ITV1 and attracted a 25.9% share of viewing. Meanwhile, around 4 million viewers tuned in to BBC1’s nightly news between 10pm and 10.30pm, helping the channel to command 19% of the available audience.

Friday’s earlier 8.30pm instalment of Big Brother, which saw the housemates nervously await Davina’s announcement, attracted an average of 3.7 million viewers and a 16.8% share of the available audience.

This was beaten by EastEnders on BBC1, which drew an average of 6.9 million soap fans and achieved a 31.6% share of viewing. ITV1 was not far behind with an average of 4.9 million tuning in to Tonight With Trevor McDonald, which commanded a 22.4% share of the available audience between 8.30pm and 9pm.

The fourth series of Big Brother burst to our screens earlier this month with a record audience of more than 7 million people tuning in for the first episode of the reality TV extravaganza (see Big Brother Bounces Back With Record Audiences). However, Channel 4 has so far been unable to repeat this performance and viewing figures have failed to dazzle media commentators.

Channel 4 is seeking to silence claims that viewers are tiring of the reality-TV format and figures released by the broadcaster show that the fourth series of Big Brother has averaged 4.5 million viewers for each show. This represents an increase of 3% compared to Big Brother 3 at the same point last year, a 27% increase compared to Big Brother 2 and a 57% increase compared to Big Brother 1 during its first fortnight.

David Peters, broadcast planning director at Carat, described the reality-TV series as an amazing phenomenon, saying: “It beggars belief that audiences for the show continue to grow.”

He added: “The bubble clearly hasn’t burst for reality-TV. The latest series of ITV1’s I’m A Celebrity – Get Me Out Of Here did better than the first series and there are all sorts of other examples that point to the fact that the genre is still on a high.”

Channel Four: 020 7396 4444 www.channel4.com

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