TV Overnights: Emmerdale beats EastEnders in shock defeat
While the twists and turns have been coming thick and fast during Wimbledon 2012, yesterday’s biggest surprise result happened off-court. The biggest shock of Tuesday evening was the fact that Emmerdale (ITV, 7pm) was viewed by more people than EastEnders (BBC One, 7:30pm). Both shows reported lower figures than usual but the London soap suffered worse.
The second half of the hour-long edition of the rural drama overlapped with the goings on in Walford with soap fans choosing to stay put up in the Dales. 5.532 million viewers (only 6000 more) caught up with the drama, which saw Chas and Cameron (those adults with the teenage hormones) make their plans to escape from the village. Also former Vicar Ashley’s life spiral in to a Ian Beale-style despair hole. Emmerdale also captured a higher audience share than its rival with 26%.
Kat Moon’s love life, much like the magic porridge pot, is the gift that keeps on giving. Just when you thought the former Ms. Slater had been through enough life lessons to know what not to do, the writers come along and turn her world upside down. Out of pure boredom Kat has struck up an affair with one of the hunks from the Queen Vic football team. Viewers have been asked to keep guessing, while perched at the edge of their seats, just who the lucky man is. Fans seemed to have missed that memo though, as Tuesday saw EastEnders record an unusually low audience of 5.526 million. The episode, which saw Kat struggling to drop Alfie from the team, netted a 25% audience share.
Perhaps it’s the tennis? Maybe it’s the intricate plotting of Emmerdale? Or it could be the air of desperation surrounding Kat Moon. One thing is for sure; EastEnders doesn’t seem to be winning over its target market.
No doubt, the all-German quarter final match over on BBC Two pulled some viewers away from Walford. The two hour coverage pulled in an average audience of 1.9 million viewers and peaked at 2.5 million around 7pm. Victoria Azarenka beat Tamira Paszek to progress to the semi-finals and face Serena Williams. Round-up show Today at Wimbledon followed immediately afterwards with 1.7 million people tuning in. Over on BBC One the machine that is Holby City laboured on, as episode 38 of series 14 captured a 21% audience share.
Gordon Ramsey has struggled to keep himself professionally detached in his new prison cooking show Gordon Behind Bars (Channel 4, 9pm). The TV chef’s heart is just so big he couldn’t help getting personally involved in his trainee’s personal problems. 2.5 million people (an 11% share) watched Gordon feign concern despite rounds of Botox, up 200,000 viewers since last week. The second episode of the courageous series saw one apprentice aggressively lose his cool as the pressure mounted. Who knew putting violent prisoners under the glare and stress of a TV camera would result in such an incident?
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.