TV viewing round-up: October 2015

Doctor Foster bowed out with a series high in October as the whole saga of Gemma and her cheating husband came out into the open.

An average audience of just under 10.1 million viewers watched the most awkward get together seen on BBC since Abigail’s Party back in 1977.

The Apprentice returned to BBC One this month for another series of faux cut-throat business dealings, featuring 18 contestants trying to curry favour with Lord Sugar.

Of the two episodes broadcast in the first week, the début on 14 October proved to be the most popular, with 7.9 million people tuning in.

This month’s DIY SOS: The Big Build had Nick Knowles and the team take on the ambitious project of renovating an entire street of properties in Manchester to provide housing for veterans.

With able assistance from HRH’s Prince William and Harry, the first of the two-part special attracted 7.8 million viewers.

ITV’s latest crime drama Unforgotten, which sounded a bit like an extended version of US show Cold Case, launched this month.

Starring Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Bhaskar who had to deal with the discovered remains of a skeleton after 40 years, the first of the six-part drama pulled in an audience of 6.1 million viewers.

A trio of Rugby World Cup 2015 matches made this month’s top programme list, headed up by England’s dismal performance against eventual finalists Australia.

England vs Australia saw the southern hemisphere side rack up their biggest ever win at Twickenham and pulled in an average audience of 8.4 million.

That result left England in the unenviable position of being the first host nation to fall at the Rugby World Cup group stages.

One week after knocking England out, Australia vs Wales saw the Aussie team again show their class by seeing off Wales in the Group A decider.

Finally Australia vs Scotland saw the southern hemisphere side secure a last minute win, thanks to some controversial refereeing, in front of 5.4 million viewers.

Demonstrating that the channel move from Two to One was one of the better decisions made by the BBC in recent years, October’s most-watched programme was the grand finale of The Great British Bake Off.

Just under 15.1 million people watched Nadiya Hussain win this year’s competition, an increase of 1.5 million viewers on 2014’s final.

Elsewhere Strictly Come Dancing maintained its healthy lead over The X Factor, with 10.9 million and 8.6 million viewers, respectively.

Top Programmes (excluding soaps):

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