TV Overnights: Simon Barlow’s lies seen by 9.2m eyes

Monday evening’s first episode of Coronation Street (ITV1, 7:30pm) was the most watched show of the night, grabbing 40% of available viewers. 9.2 million people tuned in to see Simon Barlow spread a few porkies about Carla. Earlier on the same channel, rural soap Emmerdale managed to pull in 7.8 million viewers.

Over on BBC One at 8pm Walford’s answer to Don Juan, Max Branning, struggled with his feelings for Roxy. All was not lost, as he did manage to attract 8.3 million viewers (and active reach of 34%) for EastEnders. At the same time over on BBC Two Jeremy Paxman’s reach wasn’t quite as strong, although University Challenge did bring the channel’s biggest audience of the day with 2.8 million viewers tuning into the academic quiz show.

The second episode of Coronation Street (ITV 1, 8:30pm) was down 74,000 viewers on the first but did manage to bag an audience of 9.1 million. The showdown between Carla and Leanne captured the attention of 38% of the available audience.

The final episode of Police documentary Coppers (9pm) attracted Channel 4’s largest audience of the day. The episode, focusing on rural officers in Tayside, was watched by 1.6 million people (a 7% active reach).

Over on ITV1, the penultimate episode of Whitechapel added elements of the supernatural to the police procedural and scored an active reach of 24% (5.6 million viewers).

Jeremy Paxman popped up again with new series Empire (BBC One, 9pm) but brought a larger audience on the BBC’s flagship channel. Paxman’s study on the British Empire couldn’t quite match Whitechapel but attracted an average audience of 3.9 million viewers.

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.