TV Overnights: ITV’s gushy reunions beats BBC One’s Panorama with 5.4m viewers
As is customary in TV land, a fresh week of television kicked off with an onslaught of heightened emotional drama that only the long standing soaps can deliver.
Broadcasters must have breathed a sigh of relief as – despite the hot weather continuing – the weekday schedule saw people being pulled back into their routine and switching on the telly box en masse.
Emmerdale was first out of the trap at 7pm, offering far more action than any small village should realistically provide. Monday’s night saw edgy vet Rhona get a wee bit strung out after having to go without her special pills for most of the episode.
6 million viewers tuned in to see Rhona turn to a few pints of bitter in the Woolpack to tide her over, still managing to pull the readily available wool over her oblivious husband’s eyes. The simple tale of everyday rural life secured a 35% share.
Next up was the first of two visits to Coronation Street (ITV, 7:30pm) as old dears Rita and Emily whiled away their precious time by stressing out honorary old dear Norris.
7.6 million viewers watched as the Street’s elderly wind up merchants forced the shopkeeper to pay for a rather expensive meal in a very fancy restaurant (yes, the same exclusive one that everybody goes to nearly every night and is located beside a grotty garage), bringing in a 39% share.
Over on BBC One at 8pm was the week’s first visit to the happy London borough of Walford, as EastEnders saw unlucky in life Ian Beale continue to successfully dodge any good luck floating around. In fairness, there probably isn’t that much of it to spare in E20.
Not content with losing his mind and growing a tramp beard in the last twelve months, Ian returned to the square determined to salvage his sorry life. He really should have known better at this stage.
6.2 million viewers, BBC One’s biggest audience of the day, tuned in to see Ian get deeper into trouble with stage school hard man Carl. The latest bout of blackmailing ‘intrigue’ brought in a 31% share.
The second slice of Coronation Street (ITV, 8:30pm) was less popular than the first with 7.2 million viewers, (a 35% share) catching up with Carla and Peter’s latest round of endless squabbling.
The top three primetime soaps were the most popular shows of the day, with greedy guts Coronation Street taking first and second place.
The soapy dramatics continued on ITV at 9pm as Davina McCall made people cry because that’s what she’s paid to do. Even though the series has past the halfway point, the uninspired recurrent format of Long Lost Family hasn’t done anything to dampen its popularity.
The reunion programme was by far the most popular show in the primetime slot, pulling in 5.4 million viewers and a 26% share, meaning it was the biggest non-soap hit of the night.
At the same time, BBC One offered up a slight change of gear. Broken by Battle (9pm) was a serious look at the after effects of war trauma on soldiers and the support they are offered when they return home. The heavy handed Panorama investigation wasn’t to everyone’s Monday night taste, attracting an audience of 1.6 million viewers and a lowly 8% share.
Channel 4 also offered up something in the ‘reality’ genre at 9pm. This week automotive giant Hyundai were footing the bill for an hour long prime time advertorial in Undercover Boss (9pm). 1.5 million – Channel 4’s biggest audience of the day – watched the secretive chief go through the motions, making sure the purely promotional piece came across as some sort of programme.
BBC One fared better at different points in the day while aiming squarely for the more frugal demographic. I’m sure the powers than be meant to go with different titles that were slightly less depressing but none the less, Eat Well for Less at 7pm secured 3.9 million viewers, with My £9.50 Holiday at 10:30pm piquing interest of 2.7 million people.
Despite the furore on Twitter surrounding recent events in the Big Brother (Channel 5, 10pm) house, the shows ratings didn’t reap the benefits. 1.5 million viewers tuned in to see Daley evicted from the compound, securing a 9% 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.
The Social TV Analytics report is a daily leaderboard displaying the latest social TV analytics Twitter data from SecondSync. The table shows the top UK TV shows as they are mentioned on Twitter, which MediaTel has correlated with the BARB overnight programme ratings for those shows (only viewable to BARB subscribers).