Game of Thrones return to Sky Atlantic nets 1.5m live viewers
Despite a massive online leak and the fact it arrived a whole day after airing in the States, nihilist punishment fantasy show Game of Thrones (9pm) made a triumphant homecoming on Sky Atlantic as the fifth series finally arrived to UK screens.
Returning after a ten month break, the truly international drama had a lot of catching up to do with most of the surviving characters now dispersed randomly throughout the seven kingdoms and beyond.
All the hallmarks of the brutal and epic tale were on offer last night, with healthy doses of violence, despair, scheming, misogyny and shocking deaths all helping to secure a very healthy audience for Sky’s ‘home of quality drama’.
Last June, the ambitious series four finale attracted an audience of 1.1 million viewers in the UK, while simultaneously breaking records for being the most illegally downloaded show across the planet.
Last night’s hour of broody foreshadowing managed to improve on that, with the incurably dark soap opera securing 1.5 million viewers and a 7% share.
Shot almost exactly like the frozen wastelands of northern Westeros was the village of Merthyr Tydfilin in the Welsh Valleys, as Channel 4 decided to set up camp and exploit the locals for a new series of Skint at 9pm.
Fast becoming the skid mark of the weekly TV schedule, benefits docs – or poverty porn – have been flooding onto our screens en masse ever since Channel 4 hit gold with the cheap-to-produce and self-promoting, outrage-baiting model of Benefits Street 16 long months ago.
Since then, most broadcasters have jumped on board the barrel-scraping ship, with last night heralding Skint‘s third series. 1.4 million viewers tuned in to watch ordinary people getting by any way they could, resulting in a 6% share.
Securing the 9pm slot for ITV was the second half of 80s-set Code of a Killer, a true life tale about the birth of forensic sleuthing. Down from last week’s 5 million viewers, the concluding part still managed to beat its rivals with an audience of 4.5 million and a 21% share tuning in to see if John Simms and David Threlfall could apprehend a murderer.
Setting itself apart from the heap of other documentaries set in the epicentre of London’s plastic surgery industry, Inside Harley Street (9pm) stood out by holding back, adding a little sprinkle of BBC Two’s reservedness to proceedings.
1.3 million viewers tuned in for the first of three episodes about people with too much money and very little self-esteem, resulting in a 6% share.
On BBC One, schedule-hopping competitive cookery show MasterChef (9pm) brought in 4.3 million viewers and an 18% share to the prime time slot, despite being the same as every other episode to come before it.
Over on Channel 5, this week’s pre-superhero show crime show Gotham offered viewers the exciting chance to spot a cameo from the family of not-yet-born Robin, The Flying Graysons, thrilling 704,000 viewers and a 3% share in the process.
Earlier at 8pm, there was a chance to spend half an hour in the company of Christine Bleakley’s eager and very-constant trademark smile in Wild Ireland on ITV. Almost exactly like James Nesbitt’s Ireland which ITV aired bank in March 2013, The One Show presenter spent her time ogling cliffs and smiling intently at strangers, bagging 2.9 million viewers and a 13% share.
In the topsy-turvy world of soap, Emmerdale (ITV, 7pm) scored Monday’s fourth place with 6.1 million viewers and a 33% share while EastEnders brought in 6.6 million and a 30% share for BBC One at 8pm.
But it was the Platt’s continuing woes on Coronation Street (ITV) that nabbed the top two spots. 7.3 million viewers and a 37% share tuned in at 7:30pm to see Callum worm his way into Sarah Platt’s field of vision, with 6.8 million viewers (a 30% share) coming back at 8:30pm for more Weatherfield fun.
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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