I’m a Celeb caps off a strong weekend of charity and reality
While the rest of the weekend was hijacked by a hoard of unavoidable competitive celebrity programming, Friday night saw the UK’s most famous and semi-familiar faces gather together to use their heightened powers of self-promotion for the good of charity, as another night of annual Children in Need bizarreness got under way.
Kicking off at 7:30pm on BBC One, the first chunk of fundraising fun went all the way to 10pm with Terry Wogan and Tess Daly once again joining up to force the nation’s wallets open.
Sprinkled in between all the emotional VTs of the deserving and needy – and in lieu of an actual Friday episode of EastEnders – was a very special trip to Walford in which Ian Beale found himself caught up in a heart-warming tale co-starring his slaughtered daughter, Lucy.
A total of 8.3 million people tuned in for the first 2.5 hours of Children in Need (peaking at 8:15pm with 9.8 million), with Pat Butcher, Kathy and Cindy Beale’s return from the dead netting a 36% share.
It was over to BBC Two at 10pm as the long-suffering residents of Albert Square were treated to more unusual punishment as The Script, One Direction and Boyzone put on a half an hour live show from right outside the Queen Vic, netting 4.2 million viewers and a 22% share.
From 10:30pm onwards it was back to BBC One, with the rest of the night securing 2.8 million viewers and a 34% share.
There was more cause for group celebration on Saturday afternoon as England faced down against Slovenia In the latest Euro 2016 Qualifier Live on ITV from 4:30pm. An Audience of 4.5 million viewers tuned in to see Roy Hodgon’s team secure a 3-1 victory, resulting in a 25% share.
The day’s next big crowd-distracting festival of light and noise came in the form of Strictly Come Dancing (BBC One, 7pm), as the ninth episode of the current series saw the surviving celebs head down to glamorous Blackpool’s Tower Ballroom to earn the favour of the viewers and judges alike.
The weekend’s biggest audience – 10.3 million viewers – tuned in to see 1.5 hours of easy telly, netting a 45% share.
Over on ITV, the convoluted ‘reality’ of The X Factor (8:15pm) didn’t do quite as well, netting 7.3 million viewers and a 32% share.
Up against the karaoke juggernaut was the return of Game of Thrones with clothes on, Atlantis (BBC One, 8:30pm). The second series of sunny locations and family-friendly adventure netted 4.5 million viewers and a 20% share, with the accident prone Casualty (BBC One) following at 9:15pm with 4.1 million viewers.
Sunday brought back the previous day’s top two programmes for a second round of milking with Strictly Come Dancing (BBC One) first to air at 7:15pm. A little over 10 million viewers (a 41% share) watched as Judy Murray danced around to ‘Let’s Go Fly a Kite’, while fellow endangered contestant Sunetra Sarker samba’d to ‘I Don’t Feel Like Dancing’.
Afterwards, long and sentimental interspecies buddy movie War Horse (BBC One, 8pm) made 5 million people reflect on the horrors of war, with the Steven Spielberg directed drama netting a 20% share.
On ITV, the results show for The X Factor (8pm) did better than the proper Big Band show on Saturday, with 8.2 million viewers and a 32% share finding out which kooky contestant’s life had been ruined forever.
At 9pm – and with a huge sigh of relief, no doubt – ITV rolled out the latest series of winter ratings extravaganza, I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! The fourteenth series opener saw a new host of clueless personalities and strippers dramatically enter the jungle, securing 10 million viewers and a 41% 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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