Only 930,000 viewers catch up with Channel 4’s sex in a box
It must be quite obvious by now, even to TV schedulers, that the great British viewing public just can’t get enough of guttural screaming, torn perinea and the all-round physical and mental anguish that is involved in the joy of giving birth.
While all the broadcasters have been capitalising through period dramas and Big Brother-style documentaries, BBC Two went with a slightly less abrasive tone with the more assured The Midwives (9pm).
Last night saw the second series wrap up after eight weeks and gave punters their money’s worth in the form of a daring magic trick. 1.6 million viewers tuned in to see a doctor manage to pluck not one, but three babies out of a lady’s stomach – but she was asleep at the time.
Minimalistic compared to One Born Every Minute, The Midwives drops the manipulative soap BS, making a documentary for people that don’t need life spelt out for them – it even has the old fashioned types of cameras, real people holding cameras and everything. The series has constantly brought in a solid audience bubbling around the the 2 million mark, with last night’s grand finale attracting a 7% share.
At the same time, BBC One went down the same path but chose to focus on the Motorway Cops (9pm) – the crack team of dual carriageway dwellers who mercilessly dispense their particular brand of harsh justice onto an unsuspecting public.
2.6 million viewers watched as the Yorkshire and Humber Regional Roads Crime Team talked about taking down international drug rings, but issued a few stern words to bad drivers instead, netting an 11% share.
Just to add to the plethora of tragic real life events edited for entertainment value, Channel 4 gave us a fresh helping of 999: What’s Your Emergency (9pm). The first taste of the second series gave us stabbings in Essex, a dangerously drunk man in central London and a man from Nottingham who drank a bottle of bleach – just to stop you getting bored before bedtime.
Blackpool’s tourism board must have breathed a sigh of relief when they learned that the second series wouldn’t be exclusively returning to the Lancashire town. Instead, the series will cover paramedics around the entire country, making every corner of the UK look fairly unpleasant and nasty in equal measure. Just over 1 million viewers tuned in for the wholesome Monday night fun, resulting in a 5% share.
Thank God, then, for Doc Martin*. As the sole representative of scripted drama in the prime time slot, poor old Dr. Martin Ellingham was holding a lot of responsibility on his shoulders – and that’s before the drama even started. 7.3 million viewers tuned in to see the perennial grumpy healer deal with a visit from his mother, who had some sad news. The small town antics won the biggest audience in its time slot and a 32% share.
The less said about Sex Box (10pm) the better. After many years of genuine envelope pushing, Channel 4 continues to act like a stroppy teenager, happy to get any attention for all the wrong reasons.
The ‘ground breaking’ show saw a real life couple runt away in a cube in the middle of a studio, clean themselves off and then chit chat with Mariella Frostrup, sex experts (God help us all) and a live audience about the grimy details.
This is educational apparently.
If we just ignore it, it will go away. It seems many people have taken that tactic to heart as viewers stayed away in droves. Just under 1 million viewers tuned in for the messy particulars, gaining a 6% share. It seems exploitative rumpy-pumpy on a Monday night is not to the taste of the UK audience.
Even though frumpy TV audiences weren’t exactly lapping it up, those loose young people in the twitterverse were generating some buzz about the show. Sex Box was the most tweeted about show of the day, generating 1,167 tweets per minute.
The soaps ruled the early evening on Monday with Emmerdale (ITV, 7pm) doing well enough to push EastEnders (BBC One, 8pm) out of the way. An audience of 7.1 million viewers caught up with violent village life, compared to Walford’s 6.9 million.
A double helping of Coronation Street (ITV) at 7:30pm and 8:30pm took the day’s top two spots with 8.8 and 8.3 million viewers, respectively.
Between the Weatherfield palaver and Doc Martin‘s charismatic gravity, ITV claimed the day’s top four spots.
*quite possibly the first time that particular proclamation has been communicated with another human being.
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.
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