Frosty reception: Davina gets extremely cold, adventure show slips to 2.5m
Monday night saw daring adventurer/jobbing TV presenter Davina McCall take on another audacious challenge as her bizarrely conceived four-part show continued on ITV.
Each week Davina McCall: Life at the Extreme (9pm) invites viewers to marvel at the former Ray Coke’s Most Wanted presenter as she hangs out in EXTREME environments, ranging from hot to cold, from high to deep.
After opening up with 3.4 million viewers two weeks ago when visiting somewhere extremely DRY (a desert), last week saw that audience fall to 3.1 million as McCall went extremely DEEP into the Atlantic Ocean.
The odd commercial mixture of travelogue, celebrity musings and natural history saw last night venture into the COLD of Svalbard, with McCall getting extremely emotional about an encounter with a polar bear. However, this wasn’t enough to stem the show’s downward trend with a total of 2.5 million viewers and a 12% share tuning in last night.
But it wasn’t the easy-to-watch emotive escapism of ITV’s venture that captured the biggest 9pm audience – that victory fell to BBC One’s slightly more harrowing factual doc Behind Closed Doors.
Following a year in the shoes of Thames Valley Police’s domestic abuse teams, the show featured three brave women who waived their right to anonymity and secured 2.8 million viewers and a 13% share.
[advert position=”left”]On BBC Two, American Crime Story: The People v OJ Simpson (9pm) reached the halfway point which saw lawyer Johnny Cochrane kick off the media pantomime in an impressive style. The dizzying defence attracted 1.2 million viewers and a 6% share.
Over on Channel 5, the rebooted and short-lived series of The X-Files (9pm) staggered to an end after six divisive episodes, with a jolting cliff-hanger teasing more adventures for the seemingly medicated Mulder and Scully.
After crashing back onto UK screens with 3 million viewers in February, last night’s finale returned to the overarching conspiracy plot and brought in 1.5 million viewers and a 7% share.
Channel 4’s Royal Navy School brought another hour of growing pains and pain in general as the young recruits struggled with the physical demands, with 1.5 million viewers and a 7% share tuning in from the comfort of their sofas.
Over on FOX, it was time to escape to sunny Georgia as one of the planet’s most popular shows, The Walking Dead (9pm), continued to test the audience’s nerves after a bleak but involving run of episodes.
The latest helping of survival fun saw our ‘heroes’ continue their descent to the dark side, punctuated by an typically dark episode which featured an intense performance, as Carol (the group’s matriarchal/Rambo figure) skilfully manipulated her way out of a grim hostage situation.
Despite the international success of the harsh show, just 616,000 viewers tuned in last night to see Rick Grimes and his gang of well-meaning sociopaths, resulting in a 3% share while managing to top the day’s TV Twitter chart.
A little earlier in the day Tales from Northumberland with Robson Green (ITV, 8pm) ticked all those soap-filler boxes, with the beautiful scenery and interactions with local folk netting 2.6 million viewers and a 12% share while BBC Two’s University Challenge secured 2.6 million viewers.
The battle of the investigative docs saw Channel 4 Dispatches: Housing Benefit Millionaires net 1.1 million at 8pm while BBC One’s Panorama: Shaken Babies: What’s the Truth? was watched by 1.8 million at 8:30pm.
But as usual it was the onslaught of soaps that really got stuck in for Monday glory, with Emmerdale bagging 6.1 million viewers at 7pm on ITV, while BBC One’s EastEnders secured 6.4 million at 8pm.
Coronation Street (ITV) secured first and third place, with the 7:30pm visit brining in 7 million viewers before falling to 6.3 million at 8:30pm.
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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