TV Overnights: Coronation Street takes on The Apprentice and wins
Early Tuesday evening saw Emmerdale (ITV, 7pm) kick off a night of ‘complicated relationship’ -themed soaps as the rural drama continued to give its BBC rival a run for its money.
6.7 million viewers watched as Amy and Andy cemented their new found attraction and settled down for a of spot face to face slobbering, only to be interrupted by Amy’s Mum (and Andy’s ex) Kerry announcing she’s pregnant. Uh oh!
The drama may have been high but at least no one died, for a change. The fallout from the irresponsible hook ups secured a 33% share, with Emmerdale being the second most watched soap of the day.
Straight afterwards Britain’s Got Talent (7:30pm) continued to catapult young children into the spotlight as last night’s semi-final was themed around the word precociousness. Aside from the abundance of underage talent, viewers were treated to a bit of a meltdown by a mentally fragile singer.
8.7 million viewers tuned in to catch David Walliams channel both Freddie and Stuart from Vicious, with the talent show bringing in the second biggest audience of the entire day with a 37% share.
Up against the extravaganza of crying youngsters was a slightly less disturbing drama in the form of EastEnders (7:30pm) over on BBC One. Last night saw the worryingly close community gather together to celebrate resident loudmouth Kim’s birthday.
A lowly 5.6 million viewers watched as Kim realised she was punching above her weight with new boyfriend Ray – over a million less viewers than Emmerdale managed half an hour earlier. Right on queue, Kim fell into another soap cliché as she had one of those last minute change of hearts and decided not to escape the ongoing horror of the Square while she had the chance.
A lower than usual 24% audience share watched as Kim waved Ray goodbye, ending yet another dysfunctional relationship.
Holby City (BBC One, 8pm) – the exciting and never ending drama based around the turbulent world of NHS procedural changes – followed straight afterwards, winning an audience of 3.5 million and a 14% share.
BBC One’s line-up couldn’t escape the shadow of ITV’s all-singing, all-dancing spectacular with Britain’s Got Talent easily dominating its 1.5 hour time slot.
Even sure thing The Apprentice (BBC One, 9pm) suffered as a result of ITV’s re jigged schedule, as the collection of incompetent comedians boarded a plane to Dubai to source some tat. Naturally, the contestants didn’t make things easy for themselves, dramatising their incompetence into the usual farce.
Only 5.6 million viewers went along for the working trip, down from 6.2 million last week. Lord Sugar’s extremely expensive and inept recruitment drive secured a 21% share, with viewers growing in the second half.
This meant that the country’s favourite soap had the teeth to take a bite out the prime time competition. Coronation Street‘s (ITV, 9pm) temporary late night slot did nothing to deter viewers as an audience of 8.7 million caught up with the latest developments in Gary and Izzy’s crumbling relationship.
An audience share of 34% watched as Gary was denied access to his baby by Izzy after sleazing after the surrogate mother (which is fair enough really), resulting in the northern soap being the most watched show of the entire day.
Straight up afterwards was the Britain’s Got Talent Results (ITV, 9:30pm) as 7.1 million viewers (a 39% share) watched a child stand-up (shiver) and a child singer were put through to the final.
Later at 10pm on Channel 4, Shameless wrapped things up with a whisper after 11 long years. Many welcome ghosts from Chatsworth past popped back to wave goodbye to Frank Gallagher, netting an audience of just over 1 million viewers.
However, the return of old favourites couldn’t distract from the fact the party should have ended a long, long time ago – before the once ground-breaking show became a kind of late night Brookside substitute. The final round in The Jockey brought in a 7% share for the channel.
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.