Medical Drama Edges Out Antiques & Cars For Ratings Win

A closely fought battle saw 60s medical drama The Royal narrowly edge out Antiques Roadshow and Top Gear for Sunday night’s 8pm slot.

The spin-off show managed to grab an average of 6.2 million adult viewers for its duration, with a 25% share of the available television audience. Over on BBC One, Antiques Roadshow pulled in 5.5 million adult viewers (a 22.3% share), while Jeremy Clarkson and the other petrolheads managed a very impressive 5.8 million (a 23.5% share) on BBC Two.

Elsewhere on Sunday night, one-off drama Half Broken Things starring Penelope Wilton as a house sitter who makes friends with a young couple on the run, lost out to the ever dependable Michael Palin’s New Europe. The ITV1 drama attracted an average audience of 4.5 million viewers, over 800,000 viewers less than the final instalment of the ex-Python globetrotter’s documentary series.

Fellow globetrotter, the irrepressible Ewan McGregor, drew an average of over 3.5 million adults (15.5%) to BBC Two for the start of his new series, Long Way Down, during Palin’s adventures.

Saturday night saw the usual ratings battle between The X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing, with the BBC One dance show again topping the singing competition. This week’s Strictly Come Dancing, featuring the celebrities performing American smooth or samba dances, attained 7.5 million adults on average, while Simon Cowell’s two-hour extravaganza averaged 6.2 million. Viewing for The X-Factor actually rose to 8.2 million when it wasn’t in competition with the BBC One show, which should give some consolation to the commercial broadcaster.

Thanks to the rating bump from its predecessor the new series of All Star Family Fortunes got off to a strong start. Featuring family members from Coronation Street, actress Kym Ryder and former Big Brother winner Brian Dowling, the classic game show kept 6.1 million viewers entertained, easily beating BBC One’s offerings of Robin Hood and The National Lottery: In It to Win It (with 4.7 million and 5.5 million respectively).

A repeat showing of classic Beatles comedy film Help pulled in 1.2 million viewers to BBC Two, while Elizabeth starring Cate Blanchett was watched by 2.1 million adults on average on Channel 4.

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, ITV2 and Sky One.

ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk