Silent Witness beats Broadchurch for second week running
Last night saw the savage battle between BBC One and ITV’s dark crime dramas continue, with the commercial broadcaster’s once celebrated Broadchurch (9pm) taking a sucker punch to the goolies for the second week in a row.
Broadchurch always had an uphill battle to fight after all the universal praise heaped upon it, getting the audience and critics on board for another tale was never a given.
An audience of 8.3 million viewers tuned in for the finale towards the end of April 2013 in the hope of finally getting some closure as the original murder case was ‘solved’.
All was quiet on Dorset’s Jurassic Coast until five weeks ago when Broadchurch did return (as promised) under a shroud of mystery greater than the reason for Perez Hilton’s continued existence.
7.3 million viewers also returned to see what fresh emotional horrors awaited their beloved characters, a figure that has fallen by a significant -35% in just five weeks.
Monday night brought 4.8 million viewers back to ITV for the fifth episode of Broadchurch‘s current run, which saw Ellie (Olivia Coleman) and Alec (David Tennant) delve further into the bizarrely set-up Sandbrook case, netting a 20% share.
The fifth episode managed to generate 10,707 tweets during it’s broadcast, Monday’s third most tweeted-about show.
Unfortunately for the little-ITV-show-that-could, the latest run of BBC One’s Silent Witness (9pm) is firing on all of its far-fetched cylinders. Yesterday brought the first part of the eighteenth series’ final tale as a bunch of wild and aggressive Essex folk torched a police man, with only Dr Nicky and her supporting cast of non-threatening men.
An audience of 5.3 million viewers caught up with the new adventure down Dagenham way, with a 24% share making sure the bloody gangland fun secured the 9pm slot.
After the high praise and media attention dedicated to the phenomenal response to the first series of regional mourning show Broadchurch, getting beaten by a formulaic forensic procedural that’s in its eighteenth series is pretty embarrassing news for ITV.
Elsewherein TV land, one half of The Hairy Bikers decided to go on yet another foreign cooking jaunt, with A Cook Abroad (9pm) bringing in 1.6 million viewers and a 7% share.
Channel 4 returned to catch up with some former stars of its alternative dating show, with The Undateables: Two Weddings and a Baby (9pm) being watched by 1.7 million viewers and a 7% share.
On Channel 5, viewers were treated to not one but two episodes of everyone’s favourite irritating incarcerated interaction show, Celebrity Big Brother. 8pm brought a Live Bombshell! in which no one was surprised that a housemate was ejected in a ‘surprise’ eviction.
1.4 million viewers tuned in to see a stripper called Cami Li being released into the public domain, with The Fallout – Live at 9pm seeing the remaining housemates sit around and acknowledge that Cami Li just left, resulting in just over 2 million viewers.
At 10pm, disaster reality show 10,000 BC (Channel 5) got under way, which saw 20 normal folk being tasked with surviving for two months in ancient conditions. 1.2 million viewers watched as vegans were asked to hunt and eat animals, netting an 8% share and generating chatter on Twitter.
Much earlier in the day, Emmerdale (ITV, 7pm) secured Monday’s fourth spot, with Katie’s exit storyline pulling in 6.8 million viewers and a 32% share.
EastEnders (BBC One) came in second place at 8pm, with news of Deano’s bad deeds spreading like wild fire around the square. 7.5 million viewers watched as even Worzel Gummidge cosplay enthusiast, Shirley, started to doubt her son, netting a 32% share.
A double helping of Coronation Street (ITV) saw the Northern soap secure first and third place with the 7:30pm episode netting just under 8 million viewers, falling to 6.8 million an hour later.
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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