New Programmes Give Networks A New Year Boost
Sitcoms, dramas, soaps and singing celebs proved more popular than the latest series of Celebrity Big Brother over the weekend, with a rash of new programming enticing viewers in January.
The run up to the final of Soapstar Superstar on ITV1 attracted around 5.6 million adult viewers to the channel during Channel 4’s flagship Reality programme on Friday night, which lured just under three million for its first instalment.
The soap star singing contest won the channel a 25% viewing share at the time compared to CBB‘s 12.7%. New C4 comedy series Ugly Betty, which was sandwiched between two episodes of CBB, gained an audience of 2.8 million adults or a 12.6% share.
After Leo Sayer’s spectacular showbiz strop and subsequent ‘escape’ from the house, tabloid journo Carole Malone was the second housemate to be voted off the show, with an average of 2.9 million adults witnessing her exit (17%).
BBC One put up a good fight with a triple bill of Eastenders and a new sitcom and drama. The East End soap, which climaxed with Sonia Fowler on the run from the police and snatching her daughter from estranged husband Martin Fowler, drew 8.5 million adults viewers to the channel, before 4.1 million tuned in to see Nicholas Lyndhurst’s new sitcom, After You’ve Gone.
The programme, which centres around a jack-of-all-trades, Jimmy Venables, who gets divorced but ends up sharing a home with his mother-in-law, gave BBC One a 17.6% audience share, whilst Coronation Street broke the 10 million mark over on ITV1 with a 42.7% share.
New drama series Lilies, which details the lives of three sisters coming of age in a Dockland terraced house, performed well against Soapstar Superstar, taking more than 5.1 million viewers or a 22.4% share for BBC One.
The final of Soapstar Superstar, which saw Corrie actor Antony Cotton crowned as the programme’s winner on Saturday night, and film Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban proved popular for ITV1 on Saturday evening.
The film was screened between two episodes of the singing contest, taking around 6.7 million adult viewers on average (32%), whilst the two episode finale of Superstar took 5.8 million (32.7%) and around six million (27.7%) respectively.
Celebrity Big Brother struggled once more on Saturday with an average of 2.4 million adult viewers, an 11.3% share, whilst around two million adults watched Five’s CSI: Crime Scene Investigation double bill.
New series proved popular again on Sunday night, with the return of Wild At Heart on ITV1, the drama series about the family of a British vet living in Africa, was seen by almost eight million adults (33.6%), followed by part one of a two-part Trial and Retribution, which netted around six million (26.4%).
Waking the Dead on BBC One again proved a hit, grabbing 6.4 million adults (26.6%) whilst CBB‘s Sunday instalment was watched by around 2.5 million adults, giving Channel 4 a 10.5% audience share between 9pm and 10pm.
BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com Channel Four: 020 7396 4444 www.channel4.com Five: 020 7550 5555 www.five.tv