Viewers Say No To Mayo But Dig Planet Earth

BBC One saw its audience see-saw last night, with new crime drama Mayo returning disappointing results, while David Attenborough’s latest jaw dropping nature documentary hooked viewers from the beginning.

Starring impressionist Alistair McGowan, Mayo promised a darkly comic detective tale, but drew a disappointing 4.3 million adults on Sunday night, suffering at the hands of ITV1’s nostalgic medical drama The Royal, drawing 8.1 million in the same time slot.

The BBC’s Planet Earth performed much better, with the documentary following Mayo to draw 7.7 million on average.

The programme succeeded in topping ITV1’s Midsomer Murders for its one hour duration, although Panorama saw BBC One’s audience slip to 2.1 million immediately afterwards. Midsomer Murders provided ITV with an average adult audience of 7.3 million meanwhile.

Elsewhere, Five’s triple bill of films saw the broadcaster’s average audience hover around the 1 million mark for the majority of the evening. Maid in Manhattan proved the most popular movie of Five’s schedule, with 1.8 million on average tuning in between 9pm and 11pm.

Channel 4’s highlight of the evening came with American drama Invasion, drawing 1.4 million adults, while later programming performed less well, with The Worlds Greatest Actor failing to top the 1 million mark on average.

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, ITV2 and Sky One.

BARB: www.barb.co.uk