TV Overnights: BBC One faces the music
The Voice UK hits rock bottom while the Eurovison Song Contest is down 2m viewers year on year.
Friday
The sunshine affect was still taking its toll on EastEnders (BBC One, 8pm) on Friday, with the soap pulling in a relatively smaller audience than usual. Even the payoff to a long-running plot wasn’t enough to protect the soap from the lure of the sun. It was the morning of Ian Beale’s (latest) Wedding Day and even Spiritual Entertainer Sally Morgan could have told you that things weren’t going to work out. Ian’s internal calm has been rocked back and forth lately by a shouty fiancé and an even shoutier daughter. Throw in Janine (in full threatening squinty eyed scheming mode) into the mix and you have the ingredients to push any man over the edge. 6.4 million viewers watched Ian’s final episode for a while, down one million week on week (although it still managed a solid 34% audience share).
There was a lot going on over on the cobbles at 7:30pm, with Coronation Street (ITV1) seeing little change in viewing figures. There was a right old carry-on as Sunita and Karl met at their nest of sin for a bout of high-risk lovemaking. 7.1 million viewers watched as Dev popped in for an impromptu tour of the flat, capturing 40% of the viewing audience. The second episode at 8:30pm attracted the biggest audience of the night with 7.25 million viewers. Although more people tuned in for the second helping, the audience share actually fell to 36%. For some inconceivable reason Leanne and Peter were fighting over who gets custody of little Simon Barlow. Turns out they both wanted to keep him!
The middle man between common slobs and beautiful celebrities, Piers Morgan, pulled in 3.9 million viewers at 9pm. Sadly, it was the last in the current series of Piers Morgan’s Life Stories (ITV1) and Piers pulled out all the stops for the grand finale, once again preparing his ‘interested’ face and staring deep into the abyss as he welcomed Jimmy Tarbuck. An hour of reflective chat which included some dubious connections to The Beatles, netting a 19% share. As the series was pre-recorded Piers has no doubt returned to America for the foreseeable future. Unless, of course, if he gets thrown in Pentonville at some stage soon.
Over on BBC One at the same time was topical quiz show Have I Got News For You, hosted by none other than William Alan Shatner. 4.4 million watched the 81 year old acting legend take to the captain’s chair while Ian Hislop and Paul Merton fought for the position of second in command. The episode was down 1 million viewers compared to the previous week, but still managed a 21% share on Friday.
Saturday
You know it’s time to worry when tired Ian Beale’s mental breakdown can attract more of a buzz than your shiny Saturday night song and dance fest. After 11 long weeks The Voice UK (BBC One, 6:30pm) dipped to an all-time low and not even the dramatic pull of the semi-final was enough to garner interest from viewers. Can everything be blamed on the amazing weather? Each of the four judges had to sacrifice one of their two acts to the ratings Gods in the sky with the usual dramatic decision-making eating up minutes of airtime. Not even international superstar Cheryl Cole could change the show’s fortunes, with the second to last show pulling in only 4.5 million viewers.
The BBC needn’t to have worried too much as this was all but a warm up for the real main event of Saturday night. What’s there to be said about the Eurovision Song Contest that hasn’t been said before? With Engelbert Humperdinck safely in the Baku Crystal Hall all the UK had to do was sit back and watch the magic happen. In a shock move that surprised and delighted the nation Engelbert’s Love Will Set You Free didn’t see the UK end up in last place, instead a respectable 25th. 7.5 million viewers watched the 3.5 hour ‘gay parade’ (the Iranian ambassador to Azerbaijan’s words, not mine), down 2 million viewers year on year, but still the largest audience of the day. Next year, try entering a decent song. Like Ireland.
In complete contrast to the energetic emoting, ITV1 lined some good old fashioned healthy football as England v Norway kicked off at 7:45pm (ignoring the 45 minutes of pre-match warble by Adrian Chiles). The game ended in a 1-0 victory for England with real men all around the country celebrating. The match pulled in an audience of 4.7 million viewers. Perhaps the event was a ruse designed to distract both countries away from the fact the UK and Norway came second to last and last place respectively. Suspicious.
Sunday
Sunday night’s schedule provided a bit of a rock and a hard place decision for viewers. On BBC One the celebrities were rolled out to be told how important and special they are in a lavish ceremony and on ITV1 the celebrities sweated through a 90 minute game of charity football to tell you how special they are. Alternately California Man (7:15pm) was available on E4.
The British Academy Television Awards (BBC One, 8pm) was a two-hour extravaganza which saw Sherlock and Doctor Who writer/producer Steven Moffat bask in the glory of his Special Award. Nowhere nearly as special as his acceptance speech. The back slapping affair attracted 3.5 million viewers for BBC One.
This was nothing compared to the four hour celebfest that was Soccer Aid 2012 (there’s been more than one?) at 6pm on ITV1. In the bizarest line up you’re ever likely to find, the most random of famous people made up the two teams: England v The Rest of The World kicked off two hours later at 8pm. Will Ferrell v Patrick Kielty! Mike Myers v Olly Murs! The insanity pulled in an average audience of 4.3 million for the entire event but peaked at 6.5 million in the last half an hour.
Two minutes worth of Holly Ditherbeee reading out the The Voice UK Results of the public vote is stretched into 45 minutes of re-hash as judges plead, contestants cried and Kylie popped up to promote her new something. The results pulled in 4.8 million viewers, a larger audience than the Saturday night main show.
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.