TV Overnights: Sunday’s viewers end the weekend with glamour rather than grit
After a weekend of cheap and light entertainment, it was no surprise to see yesterday evening’s viewers flock to BBC One’s earnest and sobering Sunday output.
With Saturday delivering a peak audience of 9.2 million viewers to the Eurovision Song Contest and Britian’s Got Talent averaging at 8.8 million, last night’s offerings were like the television equivalent of a long cold shower after an indulgent weekend.
Sunday’s hardcore entertainment kicked off with Countryfile at 6:30pm on BBC One, which saw the five dedicated presenters head on down to Thames Valley for some old fashioned wholesome adventuring.
An impressive 5.4 million viewers tuned in to see a selflessly brave Julia Bradbury hunt down some ants, Matt Baker go for a genteel row in a boat and Tom Heap spending a lot of time talking bull.
The friendly magazine show, formatted around all of your agricultural needs, netted an average share of 31%, making it the channel’s most watched show of the day (second overall).
Straight afterwards Fiona Bruce and her army of professional blaggers were at Stowe School in Buckinghamshire for a second week running. The 23rd episode in the current series of Antiques Roadshow (BBC One, 7:30pm) featured the usual array of monarchic tat but managed to become the third most popular show of the day.
5.4 million viewers were entranced with Fiona’s disarming and hypnotic body language, securing a 21% share.
As popular as they were, the BBC’s drive for highbrow Sunday fare was overshadowed by two hours of glitz and glamour over on ITV. Well, as much glitz and glamour as you can squeeze out of the drunken cast of Hollyoaks.
Later on was the most prestigious event in the UK’s entertainment calendar – even ranking higher than Carol Vorderman’s Pride of Britain Awards. 8pm meant it was time for host Phillip Schofield to light the lights, start the music and meet the muppets for The British Soap Awards 2013.
As if award shows weren’t overly emotive enough, viewers were treated to a never-ending carousel of scenes featuring actors doing their most dramatic acting – only to cut back to said actors attempting a much more daring feat by trying to convey humility.
5.4 million viewers held strong and managed to stomach the whole event, which saw Coronation Street and Hollyoaks eclipse joint losers EastEnders and Emmerdale. The back slapping invite-only gathering attracted a 24% share and became the most watched show of the entire day.
BBC One attempted to counteract the commercial channel’s outpouring of smiling celebrities the only way it knows how – yep, it was time for another Sunday evening mystery about child snatching. The second series of Case Histories (8:30pm) saw the return of Jason Isaacs’ troubled and misunderstood ™ private detective.
4.9 million viewers tuned in for the 1.5 hour drama featuring Victoria Wood in one of those ‘light comedian goes rogue’ roles. The grim viewing couldn’t quite match up with the images of the EastEnders cast looking peeved off on the other side but managed a 21% share.
At 9pm over on BBC Two, another lucky contributor was whisked away on a dream holiday, thanks to those generous taxpayers. Australia with Simon Reeve saw the eponymous presenter large it up in the Northern Territory, home of the country’s many vineyards.
There was some educational content thrown in for good measure – Simon showed viewers a feral gang of crazed camels running amuck in the outback, threatening local wildlife. 2.7 million viewers tuned in for the sun scorched fun, bringing in the channel’s biggest audience of the day.
Over on Channel 4 at 9pm was David Fincher’s big budget Oscar-winning character assassination piece The Social Network. The critically praised film, focusing on the founding fathers of Facebook and the socially-challenged Mark Zuckerberg, picked up 1.1 million viewers and a 6% share.
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.