TV Overnights: Frank Foster’s final fling secures 10m viewers for ITV1

Monday night’s TV viewing was dominated by the build up to Frank Foster’s murder in Coronation Street, which brought in a massive 10 million viewers. 40% of the available audience tuned into the second episode of the evening (8:30pm, ITV1) to see the character finally get his comeuppance.

Earlier on the same channel Emmerdale (7pm) was watched by 7.5 million viewers as Ed and Aaron shared a sneaky kiss in the barn as the latter finally came to terms with his sexuality. This was followed by the first episode of Coronation Street in which the red herrings came thick and fast. 9.8 million (a 41% audience share) tuned to watch the build-up to the murder; Frank had more enemies coming out of the woodwork than Rupert Murdoch.

EastEnders didn’t fare quite as well but pulled in a healthy audience of eight million viewers. Last night’s episode focused on Lauren Branning indulging in a spot of youthful binge drinking and was viewed by 33% of the available audience.

Later on BBC One the second episode of Jeremy Paxman’s Empire (9pm) brought in a 14% audience share. The episode was watched by 3.4 million viewers and examined how the Empire helped spread the British way of life around the globe and the ramifications on the world today.

Modern gothic Whitechapel on ITV1 had a larger audience in the 9pm slot as of 5.9 million viewers tuned in to see the final episode of the current series.

Over on Channel 4 at 9pm Dr Christian Jessen and his team of experts, including a Doctor who renamed herself Pixie, returned with a new series of Embarrassing Bodies. The show, one of the increasing number of programmes that does exactly what it says on the tin, secured the channel’s biggest audience of the night with just under three millions viewers (a 12% 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.