TV Viewing Round-up: April 2012

A fairly non-remarkable month was dominated once again by the battle of the two major reality shows. Coming out on top was BBC One’s The Voice UK, with the 14 April episode proving to be the most-watched single edition of the month with just under 12 million viewers.

Narrowly behind it in second place was the same night’s edition of Simon Cowell’s latest Britain’s Got Talent, which attracted an audience of 11.6 million.

The semi-controversial pre-recorded The Voice UK Results from 29 April rounded off a good month for the Beeb by nabbing the third spot with 9.2 million viewers.

Elsewhere Lord Sugar’s attempts to find a competent business partner saw a very impressive 8.1 million people watch the Brick Lane edition of The Apprentice, which featured the new buzz phrase ‘shabby chic’.

Chelsea fans came out in their droves to provide ITV1 with two rating bankers. The Stamford Bridge team’s extremely fortunate UEFA Champions League semi-final first leg win over Barcelona held 7.47 million viewers captive. Three days earlier John Terry and company’s demolition of a lacklustre Tottenham Hotspur in the second FA Cup semi-final pulled in a touch over six million viewers.

The return of Brenda Blethyn in what seems like ITV1’s never-ending conveyor belt of ‘unorthodox’ crime drama, saw 6.2 people tuning into the second edition of the latest series of Vera.

Two returning comedy programmes helped add to BBC One’s domination of this month’s programme list. Long-running satirical series Have I Got News For You claimed 11th spot with just under 6.2 million viewers, while Lee Mack and Tim Vine’s No Going Out just snuck onto the list with an audience a little under 5.2 million.