TV Overnights: Gail’s erotic antics nets 9m for ITV
Monday brought a barrage of soap and comedy with Emmerdale, and its never ending reign of the 7pm slot, getting the ball rolling on ITV. Priya and David’s sham storyline engagement continued to roll on with the pair even making a public announcement in the factory.
This being a soap, everyone seemed completely unaware of David’s painful gurning expression every time he had to keep up the façade.
7.3 million viewers watched as Priya, surely the most gullible girl in all the Dales, express far too much happiness for a soap character- no doubt signalling an oncoming tragedy. The rural romance snared 33% of the available audience.
Later on BBC One, EastEnders (8pm) delivered a shot of sunshine and happiness for its high-risk rickets-prone followers. A 33% audience share watched as Max banged, cried and pleaded his way into Tanya’s house, resulting in some lovely teatime viewing.
Naturally it took a matter of minutes before the couple’s clandestine meeting (maybe they should really start thinking about just not seeing each other) resulted in more arguments, gobby statements and slamming doors. Another Monday in Walford, then. The gritty and hard-hitting tale of stupid people continuously making stupid decisions netted 8.4 million viewers.
While there were arguments and mouthy characters involved on the double helping of Coronation Street, critically they were slightly more digestible than its southern rival.
The first episode at 7:30pm brought on a particularly disturbing scene – Gail offered herself up on a lunch platter for Lewis only to be caught out by her mother and his ex, Audrey. There is so much wrong in that one sentence.
Overall though, inanimate objects were the star as the shows campaign to deliver extremely unsubtle product placements was in full swing. The concept maybe a bit new to UK audiences but the good people of Weatherfield have been slyly flogging wares for some time now.
Bizarre shots of lager and a mountain of rustic organic olives have been getting in the way of, and in last night’s case fully infiltrating, the plot.
The distracting and awkward frames mostly seem to revolve around builder Owen Armstrong – whether he’s knocking a cheap can of ale straight into a close-up camera shot or standing in a bizarre manner against a fridge so we can get a good luck at the cereal brand of choice in the Windass household.
9 million viewers tuned in for the first half an hour of subliminal messaging at 7:30pm, resulting netting a 38% share and the biggest audience of the night.
8.8 million viewers showed up at 8:30pm to see the fall out of Audrey’s disturbing discovery, bringing a slightly smaller share of 35%. Will Audrey get through to her daughter? Will Gail ever release she’s pronouncing the Italian Phrases for Lovers in almost perfect Japanese?
The prime time slot brought some sad tidings for fans of over enthusiastic studio audiences and breaking of the fourth wall. Yes, Miranda‘s (BBC One, 9pm) third series finally came to a close. What’s even more exciting is the fact that a fourth series hasn’t even been confirmed yet!
But with a consistent and surprising pulling power there’s little doubt that the socially special shop owner will be returning at some point. 7 million viewers tuned in to see Miranda deciding to pack her bags and leave her troubled life behind forever, with the final episode netting a 27% audience share.
To balance the universe out a bit, ITV offered up a truckload of corpses in order to entice prime time viewers to the other side. Lewis (ITV, 9pm) brought us the second part of The Ramblin’ Boy (over all the fourth episode of the seventh series) as viewers got used to the detective show’s new hourly format.
Last night, Morse‘s old underling didn’t let predictable things like rotting cadavers of Oxford academics get in his way – he was in the mood for love.
So, after spending seven years moping around over the death of his wife and Inspector Endeavour Morse all he had to do was send current partner, DS Hattaway, to the darkest depths of Kosovo in order to get it on with a lady. Perhaps that boy is too distracting for DI Lewis. 6.1 million viewers caught up with the latest dark undertakings in Oxford, netting a 24% share.
Try as he might, the detective inspector couldn’t fight off the draw of BBC One’s comedy double. Together Miranda and Mrs Brown’s Boys stole the highest share away from ITV, with BBC One holding on tight for the rest of the night.
The 9:30pm catch up with Mrs Brown’s Boys saw Agnes help out a rehabilitated Father Quinn with a garden tea party. Apparently there were hilarious results. The Dublin-set slice of old school (obvious and painful) comedy captured an audience of 7 million and a 28% share.
Meanwhile on Channel 5, home of Big Brother and Celebrity Big Brother was Big Brother seat-warmer Ricky and Will: Champions of the World at 9pm. The series, for some mad reason that humanity will never be privy too, sees comedian Rory McGrath and person-who-gets-paid-to-act Will Mellor drive around the UK on a Morris Traveller.
Apparently, there will be another three hours of this. 597,000 viewers watched the chemistry-free pair (seriously, why did this come about? Even Charlie Boorman makes more sense than this) drive around Central and East England, netting a 2% share for their troubles.
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.