TV Overnights: 10m watch as Corrie killer is unmasked

Super-sleuth Sally Webster finally unmasked Frank’s murderer last night, helping Coronation Street beat stiff competition from EastEnders in the drama stakes. The identity of the latest cold-blooded killer to reside on Northern England’s most unfortunate street has captured the imagination of TV audiences for the last few weeks, culminating in over 10 million viewers for each of last night’s episodes.

Emmerdale went out at 7pm on ITV1, and sadly didn’t feature a murder, or even a murderer (although there was a drugs reference), and pulled in a slightly higher than usual audience of 7.6 million viewers, resulting in a 35% audience share.

This was followed by the first helping of Coronation Street at 7:30pm; a little over ten million people tuned in to see Frank’s funeral and Sally put together enough evidence to put Batman to shame. The drama captured an impressive 43% audience share.

Poor Heather. Just as things were finally looking up for the walking punch line of Albert Square some teenager comes around to intimidate you and ends up ending your life. EastEnders went out on BBC One at 8pm and 9.1 million people watched as Ben Mitchell helped dispatch Heather in a suitable violent, yet slapstick manner. The incident secured a healthy 37% audience share.

Back over on ITV1 at 8:30pm the tension on the cobbles was turned up a notch as viewers digested the fact that the murderer was none other than Frank’s Mum. Yeah…her. Although there were more viewers than the first episode, audience share actually fell to 40%. The second helping grew by 25,000 viewers who tuned in to see Sally fight for her life. And Mondays used to be so quiet.

The second series of Scott & Bailey helped to keep a large portion of the audience on ITV1 throughout the 9pm slot. The second episode of the series guest starred Lisa Riley as a suspected serial killer and pulled in an average audience of 6.3 million viewers.

Over on BBC One, Jeremy Paxman continued on his lavish world trip at the taxpayer’s expense in the second last episode of Empire. Last night’s Jeremy explored the financial side of the British Empire and the ramifications it had on other cultures. An average of 2.9 million people watched the entire episode.

It would appear the audience’s nerves survived the overload of soap drama earlier in the night as 2.5 million viewers still had the stomach for Dr. Pixie, Dr. Christian and their latex gloves. Embarrassing Bodies (9pm) provided Channel 4 with its viewer magnet of the day and pulled in 11% share of the audience.