Overnights: The BBC’s Sunday night line-up pips ITV1 to the top spot
BBC One’s new Rivers with Griff Rhys Jones dominated the 9pm to 10pm peak-hour last night with a high of more than 5 million viewers.
The channel’s new five-part documentary series managed to secure over 4.7 million average viewers and a 20% audience share during the all-important slot.
BBC Two’s Sunday evening prime time programme On Thin Ice, with James Cracknell, Ben Fogle and Ed Coats, meanwhile, secured over 4.1 million peak viewers and a 14.8% share, pushing ITV1 to third place in the peak-hour ratings war.
ITV1’s one-off feature-length drama Whatever It Takes, starring Shane Richie and Gary Lucy, pulled in 3 million peak viewers in the first fifteen minutes but slipped down to an average of 2.6 million and a 12% share during the full 90 minute slot.
The commercial broadcaster’s early-evening Uri Geller interview, My Friend Michael Jackson, which looked back at the singer’s life in the wake of his unexpected death last month, also lost out to the BBC in terms of share.
Uri’s Story attracted 3 million viewers and a 12.5% share during the pre-watershed slot compared to BBC Two’s Top Gear, which pulled in a massive 7.7 million peak viewers and BBC One’s Hope Springs, which picked up 3.8 million.
ITV1 did, however, manage to secure the highest ratings during the second half of Saturday evening’s peak-slot with the first episode in the three-part A Touch of Frost starring David Jason.
The long-running crime drama pulled in a high of almost 4 million viewers and held on to the peak audience from 9.30pm onwards with 3.4 million average viewers and a 19.2% share.
BBC One, meanwhile, banked the top spot for most of the daytime schedule with its coverage of The London Grand Prix, Total Wipeout, The National Lottery and Casualty, which finished at 9.30pm.
On Friday, the second part of ITV1’s new-look The Bill stole the show with a high of 4.1 million viewers and a 19.5% average share between 9pm and 10pm.
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.