TV Overnights: Return to normality sees ITV’s Vicious lose 35% of viewers
The working week kicked off in suitably dramatic fashion after three days of family films and desperate talent show auditions. As usual for a Tuesday, the soaps accounted for the top four programmes of the day with one northern drama continuing to dominate over its rivals.
Emmerdale got the ball rolling at 7pm on ITV, brightening up salivating fans’ days with another spot of manslaughter-based tea time entertainment. Ne’er-do-well barman Cameron had only gone and murdered another one of his village neighbours and was in a race against time to dig up his body in the dead of night before a work crew made the discovery.
An audience of 5.9 million viewers tuned in to see Emmerdale‘s latest homicidal heartthrob get caught in the act of his late night exhumation, only to cover his tracks at the last minute. The rural soap detailing peaceful countryside life pulled in a 31% audience share.
The first trip of the night to Coronation Street (7:30pm, ITV) followed and landlady Stella realised that having one’s pub burn down is actually quite bad for business. 7.4 million viewers (a 35% share) – the biggest audience of the entire day – watched as Stella approached permanent ball-of-rage, Owen, and explained that there would be no money to repay his rebuilding efforts.
Over on BBC One, EastEnders brought joy to absolutely no one’s face as the eternal struggle that is life continued. Last night’s episode, which went out at 8pm, saw Janine toy with the father of her young daughter just for giggles. Elsewhere, in a desperate bid to ensure the cycle of misery continues, Alfie and Roxy ploughed ahead with their plans to have a baby. Because that just sounds like a great idea.
The soap attracted the channel’s biggest audience of the day as 6.6 million viewers tuned in to see Kat, sporting her usual contented and mature demeanour, find out about her ex’s baby plans, securing a 30% share.
ITV brought viewers straight back to Weatherfield at 8:30pm as Stella offered Owen a share of the Rover’s instead of actual valuable cash. A slightly smaller audience of 7.1 million people watched as Owen, due to some reasoning beyond mere mortals, thought that investing in the country’s most dangerously dodgy pub was a good idea. The second slice of Coronation Street brought in a 31% share.
Later at 8:30pm, after leading viewers into a false sense of security, BBC One offered up some trite family fare. Despite the fact that there must be rules stipulating that no Disney content can go out after a soul-destroying trip to EastEnders (if Disney World had an evil twin it would look a lot like Walford), Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was slotted in to squeeze every last drop from the long weekend. 3.3 million viewers watched as Johnny Depp hammed it more the Sir Ian McKellen in a vanity ITV comedy, resulting in a 16% audience share.
The divisive high camp of Vicious (ITV) returned for a second episode at 9pm as dusty partners Freddie and Stuart finally left their suspiciously huge Zone 1 flat to venture out for new fabrics. While it’s difficult to criticise the broadcaster and talent’s involvement (we live in a world where Mrs Brown’s Boys wins awards and record audiences – this might have defied logic as well) it has been difficult to watch.
The sitcom, revolving around ‘poisonous’ snipes of dialogue opened with 5.4 million viewers tuning in to see the car crash for themselves. Morbid curiousity seemed to have died down a little as last night brought in a smaller audience of 3.5 million viewers and a 16% share.
While Vicious has the nation divided with its throwback nature to a thankfully long gong period in TV comedy and its ‘so old school it’s practically dead’ approach, everyone seems to be in agreement that ITV’s second Monday night offering, The Job Lot (ITV, 9:30pm), is uncomplicatedly crap.
Last night continued to see The Office-style deadpanning of the new millennium diluted to suit a much broader audience. The comedy, set in a job centre (yep), also had a devastating second week, with audiences running for the revolving doors at high speed. Viewers fell from 4.9 million in the first week, down to 2.8 million (a 13% share) tuning in last night.
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.