TV Overnights: BBC One’s latest venture into nature wins the 9pm slot
Thursday night saw a traumatised Liam Butcher face off against his family’s greatest enemy and barely survive. Yes, ITV’s troublesome gang of overpaid footballers were back to plague EastEnders (BBC One, 7:30pm) by running away with a sizeable chunk of the show’s audience.
If the Chelsea game on the other side wasn’t worrying enough, the London soap saw things get a bit reminiscent of Home Alone, as Liam had to deal with an unwanted guest. Last night’s visit to Albert Square saw Bianca’s victimised son abandoned by Bianca and the rest of the clan as he had to fend off a series of scary phone calls.
The ‘horrifying’ ordeal, which culminated in a confrontation with gurning gang leader Kane, pulled in a measly 5.7 million viewers. An audience share of 28% watched as the ‘threatening’ teenager (with a serious flair for the dramatic) issued an ultimatum to Liam.
A double assault of The Official First Day of Summer and the football was enough to distract a decent slice of the soap’s core audience. More tellingly, however, was the fact that EastEnders still managed to pull in the day’s biggest audience.
Meanwhile over on ITV, smiling nice man Matt Smith warmed up football fans with half an hour of chit chat on Live UEFA Europa League Football (7:30pm). The game, live from St Jakob-Park in Switzerland, saw home team FC Basel grapple with Chelsea for a chance of claiming the Iron Throne (or something).
Chelsea’s Victor Moses got in quickly, scoring the game’s first goal 11 minutes in. After Basel equalised with a penalty in the final minutes of the game, David Luiz managed to lead Chelsea to a 2-1 victory in the 90th minute.
An average audience of 3.8 million viewers tuned in to see which side would be crowned Best Team Ever, securing a 17% share. Audience actually peaked early in the game, right after the Swiss team’s first goal, with viewers swelling to 4.2 million. Although the programme caused BBC’s soap some minor damage, it wasn’t enough to over throw it.
Skipping forward to the 9pm line up and BBC One offered a much more theatrical hour of television. The channel continued to march towards natural programming gold with the second episode of The Great Bear Stake Out – the show with the fairly explanatory title. Once again, Billy Connolly narrated viewers through another intense stake out, as the chaos of Alaska’s salmon run got into full swing.
3.4 million viewers caught up with the latest bout of bear voyeurism, a slight drop of 200,000 from the night before. The tales of wilderness survival brought in the biggest 9pm audience and won a share of 15%.
Meanwhile on BBC Two, David Tennant continued down a brooding and enigmatic path following his run on Broadchurch with government thriller The Politician’s Husband (9pm). A semi-sequel to 1995’s The Politician’s Wife, the drama centres on Tennent’s ambitious bureaucrat being side-lined to the back benches, while his Missus shines in the spotlight.
The first of three parts of the highbrow drama, attracted 2.5 million viewers – all drawn to Tennant’s disturbing yet hypnotic blond mane. An 11% share helped the show become BBC Two’s biggest hit of the day.
At the same time on Channel 4, the once peaceful seaside town of Blackpool was dealing with the fallout of the apocalypse. Or so it would have first seemed – a repeat of 999: What’s Your Emergency? (9pm) detailed the horrors that emergency staff face each day.
Last night, viewers were warned about hoax calls and the ordinary life and death decisions that litter the darker side of Blackpool. The show, filmed in a similar format to One Born Every Minute, attracted 1.2 million viewers and a 5% share.
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.