TV Overnights: ITV wins Monday night with double combo of Broadchurch and Coronation Street
As the evenings have been getting slighter brighter and the nation collectively eggs on the advent of spring, it would appear the broadcasters are slow to realise that viewers need a sense of hope now more than ever. Especially on a Monday.
Unfortunately there’s been a plethora of grim gray-tinged crime thrillers aiming squarely for the elusive goal of realism before inevitably descending into soapy madness. Last night was the second episode of ITV’s well-received European influenced Broadchurch (9pm).
This title might sound so generic you’d expect it was conceived in a hasty marketing meeting, but the crime thriller has more similarities to slow burning Danish serials than soulless standard procedurals.
Last week’s début episode saw the investigation into the death of a young boy shatter a small seaside community with local detective, Olivia Colman and brash outsider David Tennant, on the case. Despite going up against BBC’s Mayday it pulled in 6 million and won.
Last night the case made some small developments with audiences down slightly. 5.8 million viewers caught up with DI Hardy and DS Miller dealing with more questions than answers, securing a 23% audience share along the way.
Much like its predecessor Mayday, Shetland (BBC One, 9pm) decided it was better to live fast and burn out young than slowly gain viewer’s interest over many weeks. The second and final part of the isolated thriller saw the relatively exotically named DI Jimmy Perez trip over more corpses than a blind mortician.
As the Isles became chock-a-block with victims, Perez thought it best to cancel a local festival, in order to avoid yet more paperwork. The move to Monday night meant going head to head with Broadchurch which failed to help the cold and unforgiving drama find a warm place in viewer’s hearts.
Sunday’s opening episode was watched by 6.3 million viewers but Shetland‘s audience fell to 5 million people when going up against another programme in the genre. The settling of an ancient family feud secured a 20% share in the 9pm slot.
It looked well but it was still slightly paint-by-numbers (if all the colours in the palette were a morose shade of grey). The commercialisation of ‘gritty’ does not look pretty.
Never trust doctors that insist on using their first names. Better yet, never trust doctors that insist on using their inane stage names while they pretend to practice medicine for entertainment. Despite the unsolved murders over on the two leading channels, the horror was much more real over on Channel 4.
Embarrassing Bodies (9pm) saw Drs Christian and Pixie bother the attendees of the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta by banging on about sweating, knob rot and painful rashes. 1.8 million viewers gawped at the poor souls exposing their intimate health problems to the nation, netting a 7% share.
At the same time over on BBC Three, something monumental was happening. Tired of the slow court proceedings over in South Africa, the youth channel decided to bypass the law and sort out the nasty particulars of a young woman’s murder all by themselves.
Oscar Pistorius: What Really Happened? (BBC Three, 9pm) was awful and depressing, in the worst kind of way. The youth channel sent the presenter of Tool Academy into the swarm of media hysteria over in Johannesburg to sort through all the legal nonsense. Quick – someone cancel the expensive trial!
The extremely responsible game of guesswork secured the channel’s biggest audience of the day, with 1 million viewers (a 7% share) lapping up the regurgitated facts.
Well, if you thought that was serious, earlier in the schedule EastEnders (BBC One, 8pm) was preparing to blow your mind. Last night saw the soap deal with the most serious of story lines, just in time to highlight the issue for Comic Relief – stage school children posturing as dangerous street gangs has been a blight in our culture for years.
Yes, it all got a bit West Side Story in Walford as a terrified Tamwar had to deal with a varied scope of threatening facial expressions. Seriously, it was like someone was going to pull a muscle.
Indeed, the nimble gang of youths almost lightened the mood in an otherwise typical visit to EastEnders which saw Dot Cotton cry and Kat discuss her divorce with Alfie in her usually venomous way. 8 million viewers tuned in for the impressive group performance piece, securing a 32% share.
Unfortunately for the London soap, the rule of law dictates that if EastEnders does very well, Coronation Street (7:30 & 8:30pm) will do even better. A double helping of Weatherfield action brought in Monday’s biggest audiences as each episode got over 9 million viewers.
At 7:30pm a whopping 9.2 million people watched as Katy and Ryan continued to explore their greasy romance as poor little Chesney was planning a future with his girlfriend. An audience share of 37% tuned in to see the extremely bored pair share a kiss surrounded by the quality smells of fresh miscellaneous meat and ambience of Prima Donner.
An hour later 9 million viewers watched as the danger-addicted pair took their pashing to a club, resulting in a 36% share.
Sandwiched in between, for some mad reason, was Caroline Quentin who was still wandering about Cornwall with the enthusiasm of a coach tour pensioner who has had a liberal attitude with her medication. Sadly, it was time for Cornwall with Caroline Quentin (ITV, 8pm) to come to an end.
The final episode of the second series confirmed that, yes Caroline still loved Cornwall, the people are still really nice and the landscape still brings back amazing memories for the intrepid adventurer. Whether these are childhood memories or one of the many from the last two epic series, it’s hard to tell. Everything always looks pretty much the same.
3.8m million people were there to wave Caroline and the brilliant county goodbye. A 15% share watched the presenter wipe a tear away, lamenting the easiest gig in TV history.
Panorama (BBC One, 8:30pm) jolted us back to reality with their unsettling look at the state of paranoia in the States with America’s Gun Addiction. 2.8 million viewers watched the usual array of heavily made up, bleached teeth, right wing crazies calling for more guns in school, while throwing the name of Jesus in there for good measure.
The unsettling look into the fragile minds of a heavily medicated nation secured an 11% share but most of us were busy watching Coronation Street.
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.