TV Overnights: ITV wins the 9pm slot with a double bill of creaky comedies
Monday evening saw ITV venture into scary new territory as two fresh new prime time sitcoms were released from the traps onto an unsuspecting audience.
The endeavour will always be a risk for a broadcaster not exactly renowned for mastering the comedic art (apart from 1990s classic Splatz, naturally).
First up at 9pm was the most notable of the two – billed as a ground-breaking sitcom focusing on an elderly gay couple, Vicious (ITV) seemed to perpetuate most stereotypes regardless.
Sir Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi starred as long-suffering partners and stars of the West End, living out their days in a suspiciously large flat located in the luvvie-infested surroundings of Covent Garden. The progressive, yet painfully old school fare attracted an impressive 5.3 million viewers and a 22% share.
Next up was The Job Lot, a pandering show attempting to put a smile on the face of the economic apocalypse. Her off Miranda and him off Him & Her led the cast of Job Centre employees encountering ‘hilarious’ situations in their dead end existences.
The West Midland-based comedy pulled in 4.5 million viewers and a 19% share. Having said all that, both sitcoms walked away with the hour long 9pm slot, easily beating the available options on BBC One or Channel 4. There was also significant activity on Twitter surrounding the new shows, with Vicious and The Job Lot generating 397 and 247 tweets per minute, respectively
On the flip side, BBC One offered up a late evening plethora of programming designed to scare the more alarmist among us, kicking off with Panorama at 8:30pm.
Fearless soul Darragh MacIntyre put on his hard man hat and ‘exposed’ the truth by stringing together random images and facts in order to convince us that a Russian gang war was minutes away from exploding onto our streets. The painfully xenophobic episode, titled The Russians are Coming, pulled in 2.2 million viewers and a 4% share.
At 9pm was the ever dependable Crimewatch (BBC One), a beacon of brand trustworthiness in an ever changing world of television. As ever, Kirsty Young was on hand to bring a bit of decorum to proceedings as an appeal was made for witnesses of Stephen Lawrence’s murder 20 years on.
3.4 million people tuned into the show designed to make going outside about as fearful as a lift to school from the child catcher, resulting in a 14% share.
Despite worthy appeals, tactile scaremongering and ITV’s latest entries into the world of awful comedy, it was the familiar soaps that clambered their way to the top of the pile.
Emmerdale (ITV) was first up at 7pm, with the latest round of village drama securing 6.7 million viewers and a 35% share. Straight afterwards was the first trip of the night to Coronation Street (ITV, 7:30pm) and another relationship was heading for the bottom of the canal at full speed.
8.6 million viewers (a 41% share), the biggest audience of Monday night, watched as Paul broke Eileen’s heart by making plans to run off into the sunset, all the way to the glamorous locale of North Yorkshire.
An hour later, the audience for the second visit to Weatherfield was down slightly as Eileen fled to Manchester Piccadilly as dramatically as possible to stop her man from leaving. 8.2 million people watched the uncomfortable public display of affection, resulting in a 35% share.
Monday’s visit to EastEnders (BBC One, 8pm) was as cheerful as ever as Sharon was on a mission to hoover up painkillers like it was a Christmas Special or something.
Looking to take that edge off of life (and who could really blame her?) the Walford stalwart reached a new low (yes, it was possible) as she rummaged through Tanya’s bins for her discarded cancer drugs. The latest nadir in grimness secured BBC One’s biggest audience of the day with 7.3 million viewers and a 13% 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.