The X Factor Results sucks in 8.5m on Sunday night
The weekend kicked off by heralding the return of an old schedule favourite as Inspector Morse‘s former minion made an unexpected comeback for a brand new series of Lewis (ITV, 9pm).
When the detective inspector last appeared on our screens the show was fully expected never to make a return but Friday night saw Robert Lewis struggle with the tediousness of retirement while his former crime solving partner struggled to move on.
5.3 million viewers tuned in to see Lewis help out DI Hathaway and his new partner, DS Maddox, as they tried to solve the latest spate of toffish Oxfordshire murders, resulting in a 25% and the biggest 9pm audience.
Over on Channel 4, the it-shouldn’t-work simplicity of Gogglebox (9pm) continued to attract a relatively impressive audience for the broadcaster. The fourth series opened a few weeks back with 1.9 million viewers but last Friday the audience managed to grow to 2.6 million.
A 12.4% share meant that the visual equivalent of Twitter secured Channel 4’s biggest audience of the day, while topping the actual TV show mentions on Twitter.
As usual, it was a double helping of Coronation Street (ITV) that took the day’s top two spots. 7 million viewers tuned in at 7:30pm to see Steve struggle with depression, falling to 6.6 million viewers an hour later.
Saturday brought the usual deluge of light entertainment as BBC One and ITV sharpened up the knives, polished the sequins and turned the lights all the way up as their biggest and noisiest shows went head to head.
Strictly Come Dancing (BBC One) kicked off at 6:30pm, bringing viewers an entire two and a half hours of obligatory preppiness and lots of jazz hands with a movie-themed evening. An audience of 8.6 million joined in on the lightweight fun, resulting in Saturday’s biggest hit and a 39% share.
An hour into the BBC dancing competition, ITV fought back with the glitzy dramatics of The X Factor (7:30pm) which basically offered up more of the same reheated histrionics and forced emotional connections.
Possibly hampered by the fact Strictly got in there first, the karaoke makeover show fell behind its tangoing rival, with 7.2 million viewers and a 31% share tuning in for two and a half hours of endless fun.
Later on BBC One, Doctor Who (8:30pm) ditched his high maintenance companion and jumped aboard the galactic Orient Express for a murder mystery adventure, bringing a little over 5 million viewers (a 22% share) along for the ride.
Casualty (BBC One) followed at 9:30pm, also bringing in a 22% share and 4.3 million viewers, while Channel 4’s Saturday film – the frenetic Hanna (9pm) – was watched by just 664,000 viewers.
There was more drama on Sunday afternoon as Estonia faced off against England in the Euro 2016 Qualifier (ITV, 4:30pm) which pulled in over 5 million viewers and a 28% share.
In a slight twist, an hour of The X Factor Results (ITV, 8:15pm) beat half an hour of Strictly Come Dancing (BBC One, 7:15pm) by just 6,000 viewers. 8.5 million viewers tuned in to see who was being kicked out of the singing competition, resulting in Sunday’s biggest hit and a 34% share.
Later on ITV, the residents of Downton Abbey (9pm) managed to restrain their libidos just enough to get into a heated political argument, with the Earl of Grantham getting all ruddy faced while throwing the word ‘commie’ around a lot. 7.4 million viewers and a 32% share tuned in for the eventful dinner party.
Over on BBC One, poor Our Girl (9pm) was trying to blow things up in Afghanistan while her male colleagues were putting everyone’s lives endanger by getting all soppy and declaring their love for Lacey Turner’s Molly. The latest slice of military melodrama secured 3.9 million viewers and a 7% share.
Homeland returned on Channel 4 at 9pm, making its hugely important post-Brody debut and defiantly hitting back at the recent criticism. The once-lauded show dispensed of the family soap dramatics of the past two series, attempting to blindside viewers with some explosive developments.
Living up to this promise, the fourth series début kicked off at a frenetic pace and ended with a genuinely bold and shocking move. The reinvigorated show netted 1.2 million viewers and a 5% share for Channel 4.
The Social TV Analytics report is a daily leaderboard displaying the latest social TV analytics Twitter data from SecondSync. The table shows the top UK TV shows as they are mentioned on Twitter, which MediaTel has correlated with the BARB overnight programme ratings for those shows (only viewable to BARB subscribers).
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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