TV Overnights: Whitechapel’s victims fall to 3.8m on ITV
It’s been at least a few days since TV audiences were treated to a bout of horrific murders in the prime time slot but Wednesday night provided an end to many blood thirsty viewers’ drought. Yes, the fourth series of Whitechapel, that contemporary detective drama with a rigid eye on its Victorian past, is back (ITV).
The first of six episodes saw the appropriately named (and dead Spook) Rupert Penry-Jones once again investigate some unconventional murders on the grimy streets of Tower Hamlets. So it’s exactly like BBC One’s Ripper Street but, you know, all modern and stuff.
The first three series of the atmospheric throwback proved a popular draw for ITV, with the last aired episode in March 2012 bringing in 5.9 million viewers. It would appear 18 months was a stretch too far for enthusiasts of East End violence (perhaps BBC One’s flagship soap has cornered that market since) but series four’s premiere episode fell to 3.8 million viewers and a 17% share.
Perhaps it was Victorian skeletons of the more metaphorical kind over on BBC One that provided the perfect distraction. 9pm saw the tenth series of the ever popular Who Do You Think You Are? race towards the finish line as Walford punching bag Nitin Ganatra selflessly stepped up to the merry-go-round of pain and tears, all for the nation’s entertainment.
Last night’s slice of historical rummaging was very light of hard facts and documentation, with Nitin relying mainly on first-hand accounts and generalities to piece together his family’s complicated tapestry.
3.9 million viewers joined E20’s premium ladies’ man on his ancestral journey, netting an 18% share and the biggest audience in the 9pm slot.
Over on Channel 4 those unwavering moneyed aspirational types were at it again as the 13th series of sexy building show Grand Designs (9pm) kicked off. Last night saw North Face aficionado Kevin McCloud pop along to South Yorkshire to bother a couple with a huge sense on entitlement when they were at the most stressed point of their entire lives. The show can be enjoyed on so many levels.
The new episode brought an audience of 2.3 million viewers to Channel 4, resulting in the channel’s biggest hit of the day. The transformation of an old cinema into something resembling an expensive starship interior netted a 6% share.
An hour earlier on BBC One, general crowd pleaser Celebrity MasterChef (8pm) performed to its usual standard as the final four kind-of-familiar-faces battled it out in the kitchen. Mercifully the culinary stand-off rattled towards the end with last night’s semi-final.
An impressive and consistent 5.3 million viewers watched as Janet Street Porter once again strained to keep calm, netting 8pm’s biggest audience and a 25% share.
Over on ITV, the general horror of professional cheery person Stephen Mulhern was unleashed upon an unsuspecting audience as the broadcaster hit a new low in chasing all things celebrity. Washing your marital dirty linen on a tacky gameshow in order to boost your profile slightly is one thing, but dragging your kids onto prime time TV is kind of unforgivable.
Big Star’s Little Star (8pm) saw awesome parents like Will Mellor, Nina Wadia and the ghost of schedules past that just won’t go away, Jamelia, getting their kids to ‘spill the beans’ and basically promote their parents’ unorthodox careers. Perhaps their PR people are on holiday.
Amazingly 4.1 million viewers (a 20% share) tuned in for the little poppets’ sound bites, with some presumably wondering when the Big Stars from the title were going to show up.
Last night’s midweek soap remit was completely covered by commercial broadcaster ITV, with Emmerdale kicking things off at 7pm. Wednesday’s drama continued to be at odds with the quaint village setting as drug addiction, murder accusations and general manipulation attracted an audience of 6.3 million viewers and a 35% share.
But it was Hayley Cropper’s ongoing mortality crisis in Coronation Street (ITV, 7:30pm) that secured the biggest audience of the day. The prolonged exit of Weatherfield’s most popular transgender resident was watched by 7.7 million viewers and a 39% share.
Elsewhere, Channel 5 had a fairly successful night with Prisoner: Cell Block H spin off Wentworth Prison being stuck between a Celebrity Big Brother sandwich. Sophie Anderton (her off the tabloids) was evicted from the house at 9pm, bringing in 2 million viewers. The post eviction interview at 11pm was watched by 1.3 million people.
The latest backstabbing happenings in Wentworth netted a healthy 1.2 million while all three shows ranked highly on Twitter.
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.
The Social TV Analytics report is a daily leaderboard displaying the latest social TV analytics Twitter data from SecondSync. The table shows the top UK TV shows as they are mentioned on Twitter, which MediaTel has correlated with the BARB overnight programme ratings for those shows (only viewable to BARB subscribers).