TV Overnights: Old Dog’s triumphant return brings 7.5m to BBC One
Tuesday night heralded the return of one on the BBC’s guaranteed ratings hit – a show so sublimely put together that no viewer over a certain age can resist its siren-like charms.
Despite baffling critics for many years now, New Tricks (BBC One, 9pm) has been one of the few programmes that actually cater for society’s original pariah group – the over 50s. The show, which will be no doubt be cluttering up ITV3’s schedule in some dystopian future, has consistently delivered an impressive midweek audience for the flagship channel and last night’s reappearance was no exception.
The old dogs dusted off their mystery-solving magnifying glasses, cleansed their catheters and returned with that fresh feeling for the tenth series of retrospective crime resolving.
While the magic isn’t guaranteed to last forever – last year saw a main cast member depart with 2013 promised to bring even more changes (young people ahoy!) – BBC One’s golden goose plopped out another shiny sample of success.
7.5 million viewers tuned in to catch up with the gruff detectives as they swaggered about in their fancy new clothes. Last night fans watched as the gang took a leisurely holiday to Gibraltar (while solving some old murder, naturally) with the opening episode netting a 34% audience share.
Out of that significant audience, only 523,000 were a part of that all-important 16-34 demographic. The vast remaining slice of the pie was either made up by toddlers or those who are a little too advanced to understand Hollyoaks.
Meanwhile, ITV was attempting to pull the elderly demographic into its web, through the old art of pandering programming. 9pm brought the second half of Hunting the Doorstep Conmen (9pm), an alarmist documentary that balanced its scare tactics by handing out truckloads of comeuppance to the opportunist predators.
2.3 million viewers joined the hunt for the dodgy tradesmen, but was very much overshadowed by BBC One’s success. An audience share of 10% meant that the adventures in trading standards was the second most watched show in the 9pm slot.
Over on Channel 4, the broadcaster was still attempting to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony. The second and final part of ‘social experiment’ (UH OH – we’ve heard that term before) Why Don’t You Speak English? (9pm) saw the immigrants invite their critics into their homes and share their stories.
Part two saw the audience fall from last week’s 951,000 viewers to 703,000, resulting in a 3% share.
An hour earlier, dependable viewers magnet Holby City (8pm) cemented BBC One’s successful night of comfortable drama. This week’s NHS-based fun featured more of the extremely unrealistic hospital-based dramatic behaviour viewers have to come to expect.
4.8 million viewers tuned in to watch a nurse ease a patient’s symptoms simply by being kind – much to the chagrin of the snotty know-it-all doctor of course, securing a 23% share.
Over on ITV, Alan Titchmarsh was doing his usual rummaging around in the earth and clearing some bushes – all in a desperate bid to raise the ultimate lady garden. The easy to digest vapidness of Love Your Garden (8pm) brought in 3.2 million nature lovers and a 16% share.
Compared to the later schedule, the evening soaps looked positively edgy in comparison. Emmerdale (ITV, 8pm) dealt with Nikhil’s mental health following his wife’s sudden murder, bringing in 6.2 million teatime viewers and 35% share. This resulted in the second biggest audience of the day.
This meant that poor old EastEnders (BBC One, 7:30pm) slipped down to third. 6 million viewers (a 33% share), which was a lot better than recent ‘sunshine’ figures, tuned in to see Jean Slater lay down her preliminary plans to escape the E20 compound once and for all.
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.