World Cup action takes a back seat to holy trinity of soaps
Monday night once again brought a bevy of FIFA World Cup 2014 action but only one singular game managed to make any kind of impact as the nation’s three favourite soaps managed to outperform the footballing frenzy.
The first game of the day saw Germany take on Portugal, with coverage starting on ITV at 4pm. An average audience of 4.4 million viewers tuned in to see the German team celebrate a 4-0 victory, resulting in a 33% share.
But it was the teatime match between Iran and Nigeria on BBC One that secured the tournament’s biggest audience of the day, with a little under 5 million viewers catching the coverage from 7:30pm. Despite an underwhelming 0-0 draw, the face-off from Arena da Baixada brought in an average share of 23% for the 2.5 hours of coverage.
To make way for the big match of the evening, poor old EastEnders (BBC One) once again got the short end of the scheduling stick, airing at the earlier time of 7pm. Despite the fact that the glum soap has taking a ratings beating in recent weeks – due mainly to its schedule-hopping antics – last night’s trip to Walford wasn’t affected too badly.
A better-than-expected-but-still-not-performing-to-its-usual-standards audience of 5.7 million viewers tuned in to see Sharon Rickman/Mitchell/Watts getting slapped about by two masked hoodlums. Not only that but the long-running soap also managed to surprise viewers with the surprise reappearance of a familiar face, helping gain a 30% share.
In a slight bout of switharoo, Emmerdale went out at the later time of 7:30pm over on ITV, with the rural soap claiming the day’s second biggest audience. 6.5 million viewers tuned in for the latest from the dysfunctional village, resulting in a 34% share.
But it was an hour-long visit to Coronation Street (ITV, 8pm) that took in Monday’s biggest audience as Peter and Carla decided to forget about their marriage troubles by kicking the week off in a violently boozy fashion.
7.5 million viewers watched as the two detached and tortured souls staggered into each other on the cobbles (which does tend to happen if you never leave the same street you work and live on), representing a 34% share for ITV.
In the 9pm slot on BBC Two, the three part twee documentary series about the inner workings of British airways wrapped up in A Very British Airline. Opening up with 2.8 million viewers, last week’s china-focused instalment fell to 1.9 million; however, last night’s epic finale (not really) managed to secure 2.2 million viewers and a 10% share.
For Channel 4 and ITV, 9pm brought a battle of two fly on the wall medical documentary series with The Dentists – which basically consisted of dentists doing their jobs – netting 1.8 million viewers (an 8% share) for ITV, while over on Channel 4 the life and death drama of 24 Hours in A&E secured 1.7 million viewers and a 7% share.
At the same time, Channel 5 was busy trying to recreate Channel 4’s recent ‘success’ with exploitation doc Benefits Britain: Life on the Dole (9pm). The first of four episodes, which spent an hour looking at young people complaining their benefits were being cut, secured the channel’s biggest audience, with over 2 million viewers and a 9% share tuning in.
Last night also brought the highly ambitious and impressive series four finale of Sky Atlantic’s Game of Thrones (9pm), which followed on from last week’s spectacular battle at the Wall and shocked even long time viewers with the amount of beloved characters sent to their deaths.
Fans of the show know that justice is a very elusive thing but some of last night’s surprising events could be seen as a bit of a final retribution for four years of traumatic and unfair twists.
An audience of 1.1 million viewers caught up with the array of characters spread across the harsh fictional landscape of Westeros, resulting in a 5% share.
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