TV Overnights: Soap opera victory

Viewing figures began to move away from the News for the first time this week as the riots in Britain began to die down.

Eastenders gained highest figures of the day with 7.4 million viewers and a 35% share of the viewing audience last night.

Soap operas were seemingly the order of the day, with Coronation Street also fairing well (6.8 million viewers) and both showings of Emmerdale gaining over 5.5 million viewers. Compared with the ratings for the prime time slot this was vastly superior.

The only programme that neared the ‘big three’ last night was BBC One’s Torchwood: Miracle Day, which gained just over four millions viewers and a 26% share of the ratings within its time slot.

The BBC’s News at Ten continued to fair well in the aftermath of the UK riots, achieving figures of 5.2 millions viewers and a 26% share of the 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.