TV Overnights: ITV1’s Titanic sinks further into the abyss
Friday
The UK’s viewing habits weren’t affected too much by the bank holiday weekend, with Friday night’s audience swarming towards the usual array of soaps. The frequent offerings of family-friendly films began on BBC One at 1:15pm with Disney Pixar’s Cars kicking off the weekend’s fare. The racing film, aimed at a younger audience than the rest of the Pixar selection, scored a 15% share of the audience with 1.8 million viewers.
Later at 8pm on the same channel the mood turned a little more urban with EastEnders, which brought in a 30% audience share. Dot Cotton spent an unadventurous Good Friday locked up in the laundrette with Andrew, and realised that she may have jumped to the wrong conclusion about him being a psychotic murderer. We’ve all been there. A slightly lower audience of 6.9 million tuned in to see Dot get that magical warm feeling inside that can only come with religious holidays.
Over on ITV1 afterwards, the second episode of Coronation Street at 8:30pm turned out to be the big draw of the night. 32% of the available audience caught the drama as Sunita perfected her glad eye, offering needy neighbour Karl a sofa to sleep on. A total audience of 7.7 million also watched Peter, grasp the concept of karma, confessing his fear that he might lose custody of Simon. Being an alcoholic is one thing, behaving like a tool for many years is another.
The Million Pound Drop Live (9pm) celebrated getting half way through its seventh series on Friday night by attracting an audience of nearly 1.5 million viewers. More contestants faced the challenge of ignoring Davina’s distracting twitching and ramblings while attempting to hang onto as much money as possible, resulting in a 7% audience share.
Saturday
The 158th annual boat race between Cambridge and Oxford offered many moments of controversy but the unusual sequence of events failed to round-up a bigger audience than last year. Despite the race being halted by a protestor, a collapsed Oxford oarsman and a broken oar, The Boat Race (BBC One, 1pm) managed an average audience of 3.3 million viewers, down just under a million year on year. After numerous distractions, a peak of 5.2 million people tuned in to see Cambridge take the victory, resulting in a peak share of 42%.
The Boat Race was the first of many contests played out on our television screens on Saturday night; although possible it was the least pedantic. A bigger battle had been playing out for the past three weeks and last Saturday The Voice UK (BBC One, 7PM) came back stronger than ever. This weekend Britain’s Got Talent slipped ever so slightly in the ratings, losing 800,000 viewers week on week, just enough to allow its rival to beat the variety show into submission. The gravitational pull of Holly and Reggie’s incessant smiling face gave The Voice UK the edge, resulting in an average of 9.5 million viewers. The audience peaked in the fifteen minutes before the rival show on ITV1 began, hitting 10.5 million viewers at 7:45pm.
Britain’s Got Talent‘s (ITV1, 8pm) small drop in viewers resulted in the first defeat of the new series, opening the window for BBC One to steal the Saturday night crown. 9.1 million (670,000 in sparkly HD) tuned in to see Simon Cowell and his crack team of pure talent spurt their wisdom and career advice on a bunch of crazy people. 517,000 tuned in an hour later to see the variety hilarity on ITV1 +1.
Over on Channel 4 The Million Pound Drop Live (9:10pm) dropped 335,000 viewers night on night. More TV-ready average Joes stepped up to the might of general knowledge and unfavourable odds in an attempt to take home any possible portion of the booty. Saturday’s edition was watched by 1.1 million viewers.
Sunday
Obligatory Easter viewing Mary Poppins (3:15pm) warmed up the homes of 2.1 million viewers on Sunday afternoon, pulling in a superfragilisticexpialidocious 14% audience share for BBC One. Meanwhile on ITV1, dodgy CGI fest The Mummy (3:45pm) only managed 1.2 million viewers.
Even in the midst of a long weekend Antiques Roadshow arrived on schedule (BBC One, 8pm) to give the nation a taste of that Sunday feeling. 5.4 million viewers tuned in for the regimented downer, nabbing a 22.2% share.
Des O’ Connor celebrated his 80th birthday by inviting a host of talent along to a night of song, dance and merriment on ITV1. The One & Only Des O’Connor (7:30pm) provided the very definition of light entertainment, with celebrity friends like Him off X Factor and Becky from Coronation Street pulling in an audience of 3.4 million.
Silent Witness returned with the second two-parter in the 15th series as the pathology team investigated a grisly murder in which Harry has a personal connection to. What are the odds? 5.8 million viewers were caught up in the panto/drama, with a 24% share of the audience.
On ITV1 the Titanic witnessed a devastating loss, something that could have been avoided had the makers listened to all the warnings. The third episode of the Julian Fellowes -penned drama saw characters from a mish-mash of backgrounds cross the social demographic divide in order to help each other out in heart-warming ways, all in the face of certain icy doom. 3.1 million viewers tuned in to see a poor man with a dodgy Irish accent interact with English man from high-society, pulling 13% of the available audience to the icy depths of unengaging drama. In the three weeks since its debut, the programme has lost 3.7 million brave souls.
Paranoid, twisty-turny fest Homeland provided Channel 4 with the biggest hit of the weekend and viewers with more surprises to get their heads around. The show laid some significant plot developments on the table in the final moments, with 1.8 million viewers hanging on for the ride. With only four episodes left Sunday’s entry secured a 7.4% audience share.
Monday
Monday was a much stronger night for ITV1, attracting a consecutively high audience throughout the evening. The first episode of Coronation Street (7:30pm) won the biggest audience of the night with 8.5 million viewers tuning in to see Sunita’s Operation: Sexy Time get into full swing. In scenes rivalling the nausea the nation collectively felt when Dev ‘bedded’ Deirdre, Sunita donned her most seductive outfit in a bid to seduce down-on-his-luck Karl. 34.9% of the available audience watched this. 100,000 viewers were missing in action when the programme aired the second episode at 8:30pm.
Silent Witness bagged the second biggest audience for BBC One on Monday, in the conclusion of the previous night’s episode. 5.5 million (slightly down from Sunday) tuned in to see our heroes manage to put the two pieces of the jigsaw together just in the nick of time, capturing 21% share of the audience.
ITV1’s resident heroes Scott & Bailey once again lost out to the more glamorous world of pathology with the Manchester-set crime drama garnering an average auduience of 4.7 million viewers.