TV Overnights: News of Betty’s death brings 8.9 to ITV1
Bad news resulted in good news for ITV1 last night as Coronation Street (7:30pm) attracted Monday’s largest audience. 8.9 million viewers tuned in to see the regulars down the Rovers Return (busy for a Monday night) learn that Betty Williams had warmed up her final hotpot and shuffled off her mortal coil. The first episode of the night, which saw Betty’s son Gordon ruining everyone’s buzz and bringing them down several notches, captured a 40% audience share.
Later on EastEnders (BBC One, 8pm), Ian Beale ushered in a new era of prosperity for the hungry people of Albert Square. After successfully wrestling control of his mother’s old café from Phil Mitchell (too busy with a psychotic teenager), Walford’s own Don Beale thought the current image needed a rebrand and continued the trend of naming the café after a local dolly bird. If ‘Shirley’s Café’ didn’t conjure images of culinary delights and standard levels of hygiene then ‘Mandy’s’ would hardly change your mind. 7.7 million viewers watched as Ian flicked the switch of the suitably tasteful neon sign.
As usual, there was a fall out (in EastEnders three weeks of traumatising events usually follow a slight moment of happiness) with Lucy Beale getting upset because her Dad’s latest squeeze received an honour that was rightfully hers while Mandy herself had the good sense to be mortified by the whole thing, with the charade attracting a 33% audience share.
Over on BBC Two at 8:30pm Rachel Khoo whipped up more culinary delights from her authentic Parisian kitchen (designed by a twelve year old), well on her way of realising her dream to become a fully-fledged brand. The Little Paris Kitchen: Cooking with Rachel Khoo won an audience of 1.4 million viewers.
It was back over to the cobbles on ITV1 at 8:30pm and poor old Betty was still dead. At least the writers allowed the character to achieve some kind of dignity by passing away off-screen instead of being murdered by the all-new, crazed, post-pubescent Simon Barlow. The second episode of the night had a slightly smaller audience compared to the earlier episode, with a total of 8.8 million viewers (a 36% share).
Last night saw another clash of the Mancunian detectives against the more refined forensic pathologists, with the battle doing neither teams any favours. Both Silent Witness and Scott & Bailey kicked off their current series with over 7.5 million viewers but have individually lost a significant amount when they went head-to-head on Monday nights.
On Sunday night BBC One aired the first of the current Silent Witness two-parter and the episode secured 6.5 million viewers. Last night’s instalment, which saw Nikki attempt to outwit a scheming child killer (!), was down significantly; bringing in only 4.6 million.
Similarly, detective duo Scott & Bailey suffered badly when the BBC scheduled a clash with Silent Witness on Monday evenings. The first three episodes in the current series performed well, averaging 7.2 million viewers each week. Since April 1st the show, starring Suranne Jones and Lesley Sharp, has only averaged 4.2 million viewers. Last night’s episode saw DCs Bailey and Scott wade through the issues caused by the men in their lives and tried to piece together the details behind a murder victim with a green face. ITV missed out on a potentially excellent opportunity for a Corrie crossover episode, one corpse – two shows. Perhaps the hotpot was poisoned?
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.