Tina’s demise sees Corrie shine in the 9pm slot
Last night brought sweet relief to long-suffering viewers of Coronation Street (ITV, 9pm) as the TV viewing nation let out a collective sigh as the Street’s resident gobby paramour Tina Mcintyre was finally put out of her spray-tanned misery.
The much publicised ‘murder’ was fittingly aired during a week of late-night editions of the long running soap but fans of Hollyoaks Later-type behaviour were in for a serious disappointment.
Coronation Street‘s post-watershed move was intended to make way for an inescapable daily onslaught of Britain’s Got Talent (ITV, 7:30pm) and not to treat viewers to risqué scenes featuring Emily Bishop and the rest of the underused elderly cast.
The night’s second biggest audience tuned in to see which wronged resident of Weatherfield (no drawn-out EastEnders mystery here) pushed the tangoed dweller of the cobbled street off her (previously unseen) flat balcony.
7.8 million viewers tuned in to see one of the most cathartic and therapeutic acts to take place in soap land in years, netting a 32% share and the biggest audience in its time slot..
At the same time on the other side, BBC One was also actively supporting the notions that things up north are really pretty grim as the penultimate episode of Happy Valley (9pm) dealt with the fallout from last week’s shocking ending.
Writer Sally Wainwright’s (Last Tango in Halifax, Scott & Bailey) superior street-level crime drama may have convinced viewers that the main plot was more or less wrapped up last week but Tuesday night’s second-to-last instalment proved there was still plenty of dramatic goodness to be milked from the grimy West Yorkshire town.
An audience of 5.3 million viewers tuned in to see Sarah Lancashire use up all of BBC Drama’s entire supply of ‘horrific injury’ make-up after last week’s brutal beating, resulting in a healthy, if not entirely happy, audience share of 16%.
Meanwhile, The Complainers (9pm) continued to ensure Channel 4’s remit to make an observational documentary about every single mundane aspect of life was alive and well.
Last night’s edition was the first of three episodes looking at people who make complaints and the corporations that have to deal with them. Really. The inaugural adventure in passive aggression – featuring mostly people complaining about people complaining – was enjoyed by 857,000 broken souls, netting a 4% share in the process.
Over on BBC Two was the first episode of Welcome to Rio (9pm) a three part documentary chronicling the lives of the Brazilian city’s colourful residents. 1.6 million people watched as the government attempted to wrestle back control of the shanty towns from the drug gangs, making for some interesting pre-World Cup 2014 propaganda and resulting in a 7% share.
The most popular show of the day came along an hour and half before the prime time slot, with Britain’s Got Talent (ITV, 7:30pm) offering up the same old nonsense for the third consecutive day in a row, in a blatant disregard for the concept of over saturation.
An audience of 7.8 million viewers lapped up the creaky format, with barely any differentiation from the previous eight episodes this series. An audience share of 35% was drawn to the overstuffed pantomime.
For the past few nights, the talent show has been rescheduled and found chinks in BBC One’s armour, stealing hefty portions of audiences away from usually rigid performers like Countryfile and EastEnders (BBC One, 7:30pm).
Last night saw the London set soap hit again, with even the wedding of teenage sweethearts David Wicks and Carol Jackson failing to help EastEnders fend off Cowell’s bloated brutality. Only 5.4 million viewers watched as David dashed away from the Square for a wee bit (never ever a good idea) in order to pick up ‘something blue’.
Naturally, this being Walford, the entire day ended in tears, with the fate of one long running character hanging in the balance, resulting in a 25% share.
A little earlier, ITV’s other soap, Emmerdale, brought in just under six million viewers. Later, 8pm saw the BBC fight back against ITV’s talent with Holby City (BBC One) netting 3.6 million viewers and a 16% share, while the unmitigated thrill ride that was Springwatch 2014 (BBC Two) captured the attention of 23 million people and a 10% share.
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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