TV viewing round-up: November 2016

As a nation of animal lovers it’s fair to say that BBC One was on safe ground broadcasting the latest high definition wildlife documentary series from Sir David Attenborough.

That proved to be the case with Planet Earth II which posted impressive ratings in November, with the second episode, Mountains, the most watched programme of the month with 13.1 million viewers.

The ratings battle between BBC One’s Strictly Come Dancing and ITV’s The X-Factor became even more one-sided last month, with the former attracting an audience of 12.2 million compared to 7 million for the latter.

However, while ITV has struggled to attract big ratings for The X-Factor, the broadcaster can still rely on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here to deliver a consistently solid audience.

Hosted by Ant and Dec, as always, this year’s batch of contestants included Carol Vorderman, Larry Lamb and Danny Baker, which helped to attract 12.2 million viewers to the launch opener.

The second series of BBC One’s The Missing proved to be just as popular as the first, with ratings only marginally down compared with the original. The focus of the story this time was on the disappearance of Alice Webster who apparently returns to her family three years later.

The conclusion to the eight-part drama attracted the series’ biggest audience in November with 7.7 million viewers – the second-highest audience of this year’s run.

Elsewhere, the first competitive England v Scotland football match in 17 years was a hit with the sporting public, even if the match itself failed to live up to expectations.

England’s 3-0 victory over their ‘Auld Enemy’ pulled in an average audience of 6.3 million viewers for ITV across the duration of the near three-hour programme.

Other programmes that did well in November include: Michael McIntyre’s Big Show (6.8 million); the first Children In Need since Terry Wogan passed away (6.6 million); Who Do You Think You? (5.5 million); The Royal British Legion Festival Of Remembrance (5.5 million); Dark Angel and My Mother And Other Strangers (both attracting just under 6 million).

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