TV Overnights: ITV serves up overcooked Food Glorious Food to 2.6m
Wednesday saw the launch of Food Glorious Food (ITV, 8pm), a new show inspired by creative insolvency which took the charming raw ingredients of The Great British Bake Off and forced it unwillingly through a commercial mincer. One of the judges was even named after a popular brand of sauces!
The music and the set dressing was so dangerously reminiscent of the little BBC Two show that could, it was clear the ITV lawyers creative types have been sitting around for months wondering what exactly they could get away with.
Surely the BBC doesn’t hold exclusive rights to polite reality show contestants and erecting large tents in the digitally brightened British countryside? It’s probably the first time that ITV had to look into such areas.
The whole endeavour was hosted by Carol Vorderman, who is somehow now associated with warmth and homeliness. Due to ITV’s policy on allowing older woman on the channel, Carol had to opt for fancy dress. The first episode of the food competition saw the former Countdown presenter show up as a drag queen’s discarded make up wipe.
Despite the cynical paste that bonded all the recycled elements together, Food Glorious Food proved inoffensive enough to be considered watchable. Extremely similar to the last series of The X Factor, the programme focused heavily on the oddball ‘characters’ hoping to get their dish on the shelves of M&S a generic retailer.
The first round of contestants to receive their rosettes attracted an audience of 2.5 million viewers, less than half of The Great British Bake Off‘s final brought in for BBC Two in October 2012. Simon Cowell’s latest untrustworthy foray into cuddly television captured an 11% share.
Over on BBC One at the same time was, tragically, the final episode of Holiday Hit Squad (8pm) with Angela Rippon proudly waving the flag for older women in broadcasting who aren’t forced to dress like sex workers.
It was time for the crack team of investigators to retire their grinding superior attitudes, throw those latex gloves in the bin, pass the rectal cameras all the way through and turn their nose up for the very last time.
The show seemed like some kind of freak accident were one of those painful ten minute spots on The One Show leaked over into prime time, bleeding across a whole hour. The last round up of unnecessarily nasty stories from beyond the safety of the UK secured 3.8 million viewers and an 18% share, easily beating the food travesty on the other side.
At 9pm on BBC One was the return of A Child of Our Time, a documentary aiming to follow the journey of 25 children born at the millennium. Presenter and Professor Robert Winston reunited with the families as the children veered on the edge of the abyss, that is turning 13.
3.6 million viewers tuned in to see if the parents were coping with the hormonal changes and general horror that is the birth of the teenager, capturing a 16% share.
ITV treated viewers to a familiar presence in the 9pm slot as new five part drama Lightfields got under way. A follow-up/remake of 2011’s Marchlands (which in itself was a remake of US show The Oaks), the drama focuses on one house over a number of generations, intertwining incidents that echo through the ages.
The opening episode saw a young lady in 1944 fall for a dashing army man (UH OH), while a young couple living in the same house in the present day experienced some strange bumps in the night. 3.6 million viewers (a 16% share) tuned in for the first slice of supernatural silliness, beating BBC One’s prime time show by 100,000 viewers.
Despite the ghosts, culinary rip offs and Angela Rippon sunning herself, it was the sight of Fiz and Tyrone struggling through another hard day on Coronation Street (ITV, 7:30pm) that secured the day’s biggest audience.
After their plan to steal a baby child went a bit wrong, Wednesday saw Tyrone still residing in Weatherfield Asylum, home of the criminally stupid. Despite pleading from her beloved, Fiz once again decided to stand by her man even though the rest of the street sided with evil, manipulative wench Kirsty.
Elsewhere, street trollop-in-training Katy was falling for the smarmy charms of Ryan as the toxic fumes in the Prima Donner overpowered them both. 8.1 million viewers watched as the pair locked lips despite their greasy surroundings and the smell of fermenting mechanically reclaimed meat. The latest ‘romance’ on the cobbles netted an impressive 37% share for ITV.
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.