TV Overnights: Bonfire of the Maneaters nets 9.7 for ITV
An eventful Monday night was on the cards on Coronation Street (ITV, 7:30 & 8:30pm), as a handful of exhausted characters faced the firing squad in the latest dramatic bout of house cleaning.
For the 407th time since the nation first set eyes on the country’s première soap, the Rover’s Return was in peril of getting a gastronomic makeover.
As a vicious fire ripped through its foundations, Sunita and Stella rolled about, rubbing soot on their faces for dramatic effect while they waited to be rescued.
That wasn’t the only desperate attempt to grab viewers’ attention – with the cold stealth of the Thought Police, the producers rounded up all the Street’s men in the dead of night, forcing them to take off their clothes for the nation’s entertainment.
The build up to the cringe-inducing charity strip act in the 7:30pm episode netted 9.7 million viewers, even though it felt all a bit too Hollyoaks. Despite the first slice of Weatherfield action involving a scene where Karl Munro seduced his crusty audience through the medium of music, dance and baby oil, it still managed to attract an audience share of 40%. This resulted in the biggest audience of the night.
As the men were prodded by an over-stimulated Rita (sobbing uncontrollably into their hard hats), they reflected on a simpler time in soap land when departing show runners didn’t make their mark in such obtrusive ways.
9.6 million viewers put up with the torrent of innuendo in vain hope to get a peek at ITV’s promised pre watershed full frontal moment, only to be rewarded by the sight of Norris in a sweaty fluster. An average audience share of 38% watched as news of the fire spread at a much slower rate than the actual blaze, despite everybody being a few metres apart.
In between the choking popularity of the ITV drama, EastEnders (8pm) had room to breathe over on BBC One as Bianca continued to get her teeth into her latest miserable life hurdle. The silver jacketed, red haired maelstrom of anxiety had gang trouble to sort out.
Walford’s most put-upon single mother struggled to protect her son Liam from an all-singing all dancing team of stage school hooligans, pulling in a 32% share. 7.9 million viewers watched as Bianca enlisted the help of hard man Ray, who weirdly just watched Liam sleep.
Up against the East End trouble and strife was a show in the same vein as Cornwall with Caroline Quentin, so viewers knew what mind-numbing banality lay ahead. ITV commissioners must be handing out TV shows to anyone these days as James Nesbitt’s Ireland (8pm) reminded us that uninspired and featureless ideas still have their place in the prime time schedule.
4.4 million people watched as James travelled to Dingle in the West of Ireland (much like Cornwall, the people were all ‘lovely’) and ate some ice cream in a suspiciously bright summer. Pandering to a very broad demographic is a delicate thing to get right but the Monroe actor secured an 18% share for ITV.
Fans of flour felt their knees buckle as the master of bread, Paul Hollywood, threw the stuff all over the place with carefree abandon. The break out star of The Great British Bake Off took his first steps towards a solo career with Paul Hollywood’s Bread (BBC Two, 8:30pm) freeing the baker from needy Mary Berry’s shackles.
Thankfully the new venture is short on novelty value or contrived competitions – Paul simply talked about all the breads he loved and then showed us how to bake them. The first episode brought a healthy audience of 2.4 million viewers to BBC Two, resulting in a 10% share.
In the 9pm slot BBC One offered up the slightly underwhelming Traffic Cops, which secured 3 million viewers and a 13% share. The hidden camera show couldn’t compete with the third episode of Broadchurch over on ITV as investigators Hardy and Miller delved deeper into the small town mystery.
Last night saw the pair finally make some progress in the hunt for young Danny’s murderer. As you might expect, the latest revelation brought on its fair share of further grief. The troubling trip to the seaside town was watched by a massive 7.4 million viewers, easily securing the 9pm slot with a 31% share.
At the same time on BBC Two was the feature length drama The Challenger. William Hurt starred as a real life physicist tasked with investigating what exactly caused the nationwide traumatising event that was NASA’s Challenger disaster.
1.4 million viewers watched as the legendary actor picked apart the clues that fell back to earth, netting a 6% 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.