TV Overnights: The Syndicate wins 5.2m for BBC One

A new comedy drama written by Kay Mellor netted a 22% audience share for BBC One at 9pm.

The first instalment of five-part drama The Syndicate saw five members of staff from a low-rent Leeds supermarket, including Neville Longbottom and Stacey from Barry Island, win an £18 million jackpot.

The host of the down-on-their-luck characters quickly realised that more money can lead to more problems, with 5.2 million viewers going along for the ride.

Earlier on ITV1 Emmerdale underperformed compared to its usual pulling power, with only 5.6 million viewers catching the latest drama from the Dales. The storyline’s narrative power, featuring Sandy and Ashley scrapping over an overflowing sink, wasn’t strong enough to attract the usual volume of viewers but still managed a 31% audience share.

EastEnders won the biggest audience of Tuesday night for BBC One, capturing 37% of the available audience. The episode, which went out at 7:30pm, saw Jay Mitchell almost crack under the pressure from adoptive dad Phil. 7.3 million people tuned in to see if Jay’s troubles will escalate into haunting from Heather’s ghost.

The Hairy Bikers provided BBC Two with the channel’s biggest audience of the day with David and Simon arriving in Germany as part of their European tour. The Hairy Bikers’ Bakeation drew in 2.2 million (a 10 % audience share) as they pair churned out pretzels and a black forest gateau.

Over on ITV1 coverage of the FA Cup Replay, presented by Adrian Chiles, began at 7:45pm at the Stadium of Light. Sunderland v Everton kicked off at 8pm with 5.6 million people tuning in for the entire event. The audience peaked at 4.3 million viewers half an hour into the game. An average audience share of 14% saw Everton win 2-0, securing their place in the semi-final against Liverpool.

Over on Channel 4, Kayvan Novak kicked-off the second series of Facejacker (10pm) by bringing his prosthetic creations to the USA. The stunt show, which included Terry Tibbs judging a beauty pageant, bagged 5.4% of the available audience. One million viewers watched Terry’s aggressive humour being wasted on his unsuspecting transatlantic victims.

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.