TV Viewing Summary W/E 01/06/97

Both Coronation Street and Eastenders have scored rather a low average viewers figure this week, coinciding with the first week of blisteringly hot sun! Eastenders came out on top with an average of 12.42 million viewers, and probably benefits slightly from not having an episode on either a Friday night or a Sunday. Coronation Street does try to maintain its audience throughout the weekend, which may prove harder and harder the better the weather gets; the Street achieved an average audience of 11.64 million this week.

The good weather looks as though it has stolen viewers right across the board, with most programmes experiencing a drop in audience this week. The National Lottery’s problems which Newsline highlighted earlier this week seem to have begun before last Saturday. In this week’s listings they only achieved an audience of 8.30 million – the days of 12-13 million viewers seem long gone.

The BBC has just re-floated one of its traditional comedy flagships, Birds Of A Feather. 9.85 million viewers tuned in to watch, making it the only first run comedy to make the top 30 this week . Whether or not it can keep its head above water in the coming weeks is another matter. There is an attempt at ‘refurbishment’ being carried out with the return of the jailbird husbands, but as we’ve seen time and time again when a sit-com comes to the end of the line there really is very little one can do except bin the leftovers. Attempts to serve the same re-heated dish become most embarrassing to watch, (Roseanne currently champions this style of tragic downfall).

A couple of ‘one offs’ make a stand in the top thirty this week. QED presented a documentary on the life and medical history of Joseph Merrick the Elephant Man and attracted 7.98 million viewers. Bank Holiday Monday saw Lenny Henry packed off to the Amazon Jungle, watched by 8.65 million on BBC1 whilst over on ITV A Royal Gala was seen by 8.33 million.

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