TV Viewing Summary W/E 21/02/99

The annual back slapping award ceremony season kicked off with ITV’s screening of the Brit Awards 1999. In years gone by the ceremony has had added publicity, plus healthy viewing figures, thanks to the antics of Jarvis Cocker and one hit wonders Chumbawumba.

This year the best the event could throw up was the half hearted vote rigging rumpus involving Best Newcomers Belle and Sebastian, the scandal of Billie actually being nominated in not one but TWO categories and the who the heck is Tina Cousins discussion (who performed in the awful ABBA medley tribute). That said, the show did pull in a respectable 9.86 million viewers and a consolidated viewing share of 39%.

Recently released from ITV’s golden handcuffs, Nick Berry’s new drama series Harbour Lights pulled in an audience of 10.9 million. This high octane drama (sic) series managed to scupper the recent audience increase in ITV cop drama The Bill, leaving the show with only 8.73 million viewers. ITV get some consolation with the fact that the show Nick Berry left, the equally exciting Heartbeat, has shown no loss in audience. This week’s episode achieved figures of 16.85 million, beating all of this week’s editions of BBC1’s Eastenders.

More baffling than a plot line in Sunset Beach is the continued success of BBC2’s Robot Wars. Since the beginning of the year the show has been achieving combined audience figures of around 6 million. This week’s show is only beaten to position of top BBC2 programme by the return of Red Dwarf, which achieved an audience of 6.21 million on Thursday and a further 1.84 million with its Sunday repeat.

Reviewer: Simon Wright

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