TV Overnights: Emmerdale and Coronation Street secures Wednesday’s biggest audiences for ITV
Genealogical naval gazing was the highlight of BBC One’s midweek offerings as potato-based snack pusher and one time footballer Gary Lineker took to the roller coaster of emotion for Who Do You Think You Are?
The programme, akin to picking at a very old scab that just won’t heal, excels in opening up long dormant emotional wounds and edits it into digestible prime time entertainment for all the family.
As he gazed over his shoulder into the distant past in a melancholic manner (as is a prerequisite for the show) Gary discovered that life in the olden days wasn’t all Mayfair dancing and garden parties.
The fifth episode broke from tradition and didn’t deliver the usual horror stories as the footballer managed to take the surprises on the chin and trace his linage all the way back to Disney character Dumbo.
5 million viewers tuned in to see Gary man up and accept his dubious ancestors without the need for an emotional breakdown, securing a 23% share and the biggest audience in the 9pm slot.
Over on Channel 4 there was no shortage of horror stories as the ill-fated guest stars kept coming thick and fast through the doors of King’s College Hospital. Last night’s episode of 24 Hours in A&E (9pm) was brought to us by the words Car and Crash, as the numerous unfortunates who appeared all had some sort of automotive mishaps.
The latest bout of real life hope, tears and loss captured an audience of 2.2 million, resulting in Channel 4’s biggest hit of the day.
Earlier at 8pm, ITV decided to rest on its laurels and fling out another two hour murder mystery from the vaults of ITV3. Perhaps most of the staff are off on their holiday jaunts, but just one day after prime time viewers were treated to a feature length repeat of Lewis, the commercial broadcaster seemed to have surrendered to viewers’ seasonal indifference.
2.9 million viewers tuned in for the episode of Midsomer Murders (ITV, 8pm) from 2011, which paid homage to hammy horror movies of the past. Jones and Barnaby’s hunt for mummies, vampires and some sense in a reference-heavy plot pulled in an audience share of 14%.
Celebrity MasterChef was on BBC One at 8pm and an impressive 4.7 million viewers tuned in to see the usual array of grafting personalities duke it out in the kitchen, hoping for a moment to shine. Now over half way through its tenth series, the competitive cooking programme was the fourth biggest show of the day, securing the 8pm slot for the channel and bringing in a 23% share.
An hour earlier, ITV’s soaps were left pretty much unchallenged from any serious competition as an hour of high drama kicked off at 7pm. Emmerdale saw the fuzz shut down all activities at Home Farm much to the chagrin of evil megalomaniac Declan Macey (but then, the discovery of a corpse in a shallow grave will force the police into these actions).
6.1 million viewers watched the latest charming storyline from the peaceful village unfold, pulling in a 34% share and the day’s second biggest audience.
David Platt’s continuing trouble in Coronation Street (7:30pm) provided ITV with Wednesday’s biggest audience with a single outing for the Weatherfield drama. 7.5 million viewers (a 38% share) watched as sharpest tool in the street, Tina McIntyre, slowly began to recognise that David was the evil mastermind behind the campaign of nonsense aimed at his very own brother.
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.