TV Viewing Summary W/E 14/03/99

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. This was the week of the new look ITV schedule without any interuptions (unless of course you count those tiny little things called commercial breaks). ITV had much to celebrate with the top thirty list being dominated by its programmes. New programmes like A Touch of Frost and Kavanagh QC along with films such as Goldeneye, The Specialist and While You Were Sleeping did particularly well, gaining audiences of 14.64, 10.67, 13.23, 10.58 and 9.2 million respectively.

There is continued success for ITV’s Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, with audiences for the week peaking at 17.57 million. ITV must be hoping that interest holds in the programme, which has yet to give away the much-vaunted £1 million cash prize. The level of interest in the programme even spilled over into the newspapers, with articles on the fact that one of the questions was incorrectly answered.

The BBC was left to reflect on the fact that only six of its programmes made it into the the top thirty list. The highest rating programme for BBC1 was Tuesday’s edition of Eastenders, which pulled in 14.23 million viewers. Obviously there was a lot of viewer curiosity with regards to the new look ITV schedule and it will be interesting to see whether people stick with the channel in the coming months.

Reviewer: Simon Wright