Unstoppable BGT reigns supreme over bank holiday weekend
As if there was any doubt, Saturday saw ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent (8pm) kick off the bank holiday weekend TV in style and managed to secure the weekend’s biggest audience before its competitors were even out of the gate.
A whopping 43% audience share tuned in to watch the usual array of singers, dancers, acrobats and crossbow enthusiasts perform for the judges, who dutifully got through the usual array of pre-scripted emotions, resulting in an audience of 8.8 million.
In a similarly insipid vein was Michael McIntyre’s Big Show which aired a little bit earlier at 7pm on BBC One. This week’s large dollop of contrived variety fun came in the form of Rod Stewart’s brittle frame, with the slice of empty Saturday night fun bringing in 4.5 million viewers and a 26% share.
The drama came thick and heavy on Sunday night but not before BBC One’s Countryfile (7pm) suffered a noticeable setback.
Traditionally the weekend’s unlikely victor, Sunday’s edition saw its outdoor-loving audience actually use the bank holiday to escape outdoors, with viewers falling to just 5 million (a 26% share).
[advert position=”left”]ITV provided some warm and nostalgic options from 8pm with family drama The Durrells securing 4.9 million viewers, while the small town antics of the WI on Home Fires (9pm) were watched by 4 million viewers.
BBC One’s offering definitely fell more in the twisted paranoid side of the family drama genre, with the fifth and penultimate episode of the decidedly backstabby Undercover (9pm) netting 3.6 million viewers and a 17% share.
Monday night saw MasterChef bringing in 4.6 million viewers and a 19% share at 8:30pm, while ITV’s very own twisted paranoid family drama Marcella belted along into madness with 4.1 million and a 17% share.
While the decision to split the second series of The Island with Bear Grylls (9pm) between genders, across two separate islands and across two separate nights seemed to bolster the audience, the third run of the extreme weight-loss show fell back to series one levels of popularity.
Last year the women’s highly entertaining journey ended with 2.3 million viewers with this year seeing an overall fall. After moving from Wednesday and Thursday night’s back to Monday night for this year’s combined adventure, yesterday’s finale secured 1.5 million viewers and a 6% share.
Meanwhile on Sky Atlantic, the second episode of Game of Thrones‘ (9pm) sixth series got Twitter in a flurry once more as a few more regular actors were sent their P45s.
An audience of 752,000 tuned in for the 9pm showing, resulting in a 3% share and generating the most TV-related tweets of the day.
Overnight data is available each morning in mediatel.co.uk’s TV Database, with all BARB registered subscribers able to view reports for terrestrial networks and key multi-channel stations. Overnight data supplied by TRP are based on 15 minute slot averages. This may differ from tape checked figures, which are based on a programme’s actual start and end time.
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