TV Overnights: BBC One and ITV go Royal baby mad, viewers not so much
A brand new week saw the arrival of a brand new Royal which resulted in some serious coverage yesterday – unfortunately television audiences weren’t flocking to their screens to grab an exciting look at the exterior of a building.
Featuring exclusives with the usual mentalists who camp out and ‘just had to be part of the celebrations’, the flagship news programmes used extremely creative ways to retell the main headline in a variety of different ways, desperate to get us hooked on the Royal hysteria.
Somehow stretching out the news (Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge, Countess of Strathearn and plain old Baroness of Carrickfergus successfully splodged out a little prince) throughout the entire day, Monday’s schedule ended up looking like monarchist propaganda from 6pm onwards.
BBC News Special kicked off at 8:30pm on BBC One and brought us an hour and a half of updates about the privileged toddler, bringing an average audience of 2.9 million viewers.
If that wasn’t enough, BBC News at Ten followed straight after, giving viewers updated shots of the hospital exterior, mental people and much less important international news, pulling in 4 million viewers and a 21% share.
ITV also did pretty well out of the arrival – unlike the BBC, the broadcaster managed to trim its prime time baby swooning show to a sensible hour, with ITV News (9pm) securing 3.4 million viewers and a 16% share.
Saying that, ITV News at Ten followed and didn’t veer too far from the national maternity high with 2 million viewers tuning in.
Let’s spend a moment thinking about the show that got bumped from the schedules to accommodate the miniature regal delight – you may not get a day off work but at least you were spared an hour of Julia Bradbury going on about type two diabetes in the 9pm slot on BBC One. It’s as if they knew…
Waaay over on Channel 4 – a place where the terms prince and princess are usually pre-empted by the word ‘gypsy’ – Undercover Boss plodded on with its fifth series. Southwark Council got an hour of free publicity last night as the eponymous boss jumped through a few hoops and learned things from the common folk.
The wee baby Royal was popular enough to suck some viewers away with 1.4 million people tuning in, resulting in a 7% share.
Meanwhile, the little digital channel that is still spurned by the masses – BBC Four – continued to wage a war for prospective viewers by airing the last of its self-commissioned dramas. Focusing on royalty of a different kind, Burton and Taylor (9pm) caught up with the ageing stars in the 80s as the star crossed lovers once again crashed into each other’s lives, bringing an epic amount of baggage with them.
Despite an impressive amount of press coverage, a paltry 1.2 million viewers tuned in for the pill-popping drama starring Helena Bonham Carter and Dominic West, resulting in a 6% share.
Earlier on in the day there was drama of the more everyday kind. Emmerdale (ITV) warmed up the heightened emotional outbursts at 7pm, attracting 6 million viewers and a 35% share.
BBC One’s most watched show of the day came in the form of EastEnders (8pm), which pulled in an audience of 6.7 million viewers.
Coronation Street (ITV, 7:30pm and 8:30pm) welcomed viewers back to a fresh week by signalling the death-knell of a long-standing and beloved character. As if Mondays aren’t difficult enough, poor old Hayley Cropper was faced with an extremely serious diagnosis.
Elsewhere, Sally was on hand to balance out the universe and give a sprinkle of hope to viewers. Despite having a shrewish drip and a husband who’s missing in action, the soap mainstay still managed to make gooey eyes with rubbish father Tim.
7.6 million people watched the first episode at 7:30pm, translating to a 39% share. Sally’s heightened heartbeat ensured that 7.5 million people came back an hour later, resulting in the two biggest shows of the day.
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.