TV Overnights: Glorious weather results in a weekend TV washout
With most of the country enjoying unseasonal good weather on Saturday, the BBC attempted to lure in audiences with bite sized helpings of Glastonbury 2013 and Wimbledon 2013 but they just weren’t biting.
When any given day’s output peaks with light entertainment (lighter than hydrogen, light) drivel fronted by Paddy McGuinness, you know it’s been a bad day.
Your Face Sounds Familiar (7pm) not only provided ITV with its biggest hit of the day but ended up being the most watched show across all channels. Naturally, as any current hit show could testify, ‘celebrities’ were a key ingredient. Paddy and co-host Alesha Dixon tasked a group of the most random personalities (Bobby Davro and Heavver from EastEnders to name but two of the illustrious cast) to dress up as a random musical act and perform, with the public then wielding their voting power.
The show – the very definition of a sunny day schedule filler (or television designed to break your soul) – was watched by a massive sun – fatigued audience of 3.8 million viewers. The brain melting hilarity also managed to pull in a 21% share, making sure the June 29th will forever live on in infamy.
Elsewhere, after much legal wrangling with the BBC, The Rolling Stones’ headlining set at the Pyramid Stage aired live at 10:30pm on BBC Two with the two hour segment of Glastonbury 2013 pulling in 1.3 million fans.
After a disastrous Saturday in TV, in which the mystical sun made its annual appearance and stole away the vast majority of viewers, Sunday had a lot of ground to make up.
With a new day, there came a new sense of hope for advertisers and their diligent campaigns. While audiences did improve considerably, the top seven shows went out on the BBC – with the biggest commercial hit of the Sunday turning out to be Tipping Point: Lucky Stars (ITV, 7pm).
The quiz show which involved ITV’s premium happy smiley chap Ben Shephard firing questions at Coolio (for some reason) was watched by 3 million viewers.
At the same time, BBC One had initiated its Sunday evening comedown protocol, heralded by the arrival of Antiques Roadshow (7pm). This week Fiona Bruce and her seven ugly dwarves tried to stay awake in Chatsworth (the grand house, not the council estate unfortunately) and pulled in 4.4 million viewers, the fourth biggest hit of the day.
Next up the BBC pulled out the big guns with the latest exciting episode of Countyfile (BBC One, 8pm) and a brand new series of Top Gear (BBC Two, 8pm). This week, the country’s premiere rural magazine show saw John Craven wander through some woods, but it was a bit of a cheat really.
The biggest show of the past two days (yes, I’m still talking about Countryfile) was a clip show based around the theme of transport. The greatest hits package pulled in a passionate audience of 5.4 million viewers and a 23% share, outpacing its weekend rivals.
Over on BBC Two, the twentieth series of ‘bloke’ show Top Gear got off to a start as May, Hammond and Clarkson all returned with their usual pandering staged banter, which in some sad deranged middle class alternative universe (BBC’s Media City perhaps?) is mistaken as the epitome of masculinity.
4.7 million viewers caught up with the trio, who stroked cars and bickered with the subtlety of pantomime characters, resulting in a 20% share, the weekends second biggest hit.
At 9pm on BBC One was the third part of bloody stiff upper class bonk fest, The White Queen. The ambitious series saw the plot thicken to the point of gluttony, with 4.2 million viewers watching Edward’s claim for the Iron bog standard Throne, resulting in a 19% share.
To counteract all the bloody excitement, ITV offered the terminally bored a chance to spend some quality time with their most cherished singer in Michael Buble’s Day Off.
The harrowing and hard hitting documentary followed the famous person meandering around his home town of Vancouver, acting nice and inoffensive to the point where it started to become offensive.
3 million viewers watched as Michael had coffee with his grandpa (in an attempt to make female knees buckle on a record breaking global level) and broke into his crooning every now and then. A 13% audience share chose to end their weekend in this way.
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.