TV Overnights: Grim Beats Glam
Despite all the hype and flashing lights surrounding The BRIT Awards 2012, last night viewers couldn’t escape the lure of Tuesday’s slightly less glamorous soap offerings.
Emmerdale on ITV1 at 7pm tackled the thorny issue of Nikhil’s obsessive fitness regime and pulled in an average audience of 7.27 viewers (33.6% of available viewers). This was followed by a bout of extreme angling as Jeremy Wade sought out a South American fish that attacked a diver. River Monsters reeled in an average audience of 2.8 million.
EastEnders on BBC One grabbed the biggest audience of the night with 7.9 million viewers, as Derek’s scheming against Roxy continued. The E20-based drama peaked in the second half with an audience of 8.1 million and had an average audience share of 35.2% (the highest of the night) during the thirty minute slot.
The multi-channel event got off to quite a slow start with The BRITs Red Carpet warm-up show only pulling in an average of 489,000 viewers on ITV2 (a share of 2.2%). Things shifted up a gear as the main event kicked off immediately after at 8pm over on ITV1. There were few surprises as Adele continued her Grammy triumph run and walked home with British Female Solo Artist and Album of the Year.
The awards show ruled the airwaves with an average audience of 5.9 million viewers and a 24% average audience share (the highest on any channel over the two hour running time). Viewer interest peaked around 8:45pm; 6.4 million people tuned in to watch Coldplay pick up the award for Best British Group. This year’s ceremony proved more successful than 2010’s, with a YoY audience increase of 19% (when looking at standard definition broadcast only). All this, despite the presence of James Corden.
Rival channels did suffer throughout the two hour time slot with the BRIT effect being felt as far away as Holby City, which managed an average audience of 4.4 million; down 1 million week on week. On BBC Two Alex Polizzi: The Fixer was also down 332,000, while Big Fat Gypsy Weddings over on Channel 4 also suffered, losing 1.4 million viewers compared to last week’s episode.
BBC One took home the award for highest audience share in the Post-BRITs schedule. News at Ten, Death Unexplained and Who Do You Think You Are? all performed strongly against the main competitors.