10m turn up for EastEnders wedding
- Published: 02 November 2007 11:48
- Author: Jon Rogers
- More by this Author
- Last Updated: 02 November 2007 11:59
An hour-long EastEnders wedding special drew 10m viewers (43.4%) to BBC1 last night, fending off the challenge from ITV1's Emmerdale.
An hour-long EastEnders wedding special drew 10m viewers (43.4%) to BBC1 last night, fending off the challenge from ITV1's Emmerdale.
The special 60 minute edition of the corporation's soap – featuring the wedding of Stacey Slater and Bradley Branning - saw its audience build from an initial 8.5m (37.6%) at the 7.30pm start to a high of 10.9m (47.5%) at 8pm.
The audience for BBC1's flagship soap was comfortably above the channel's slot average of 6.3m (36.7%).
EastEnders has, so far this year, averaged 8.4m (39.6%), making it the second most popular show on TV behind ITV1's Coronation Street.
Its most popular episode attracted 10.7m (41.1%) on New Year's Day. The least watched outing on 17 May could only muster 4m (19.6%).
EastEnders was up against Emmerdale on ITV1
Soap wars
Emmerdale averaged 6.4m (29.7%) over an hour from 7pm. Its peak audience hit 7.8m (27.2%) at 7.15pm but once EastEnders began at 7.30pm its audience declined.
At 7.30pm it had 5.6m viewers (24.9%). In the final 15 minutes it averaged 4.9m (21.5%).
The strong showing for EastEnders also had an impact on the commercial network's police drama The Bill at 8pm. The hour-long programme pulled in just 4.2m (18.2%).
ITV1's audience fell even further at 9pm with the finale of The Whistleblowers. The struggling drama ended its six-part run on just 2.9m (13.8%), a similar audience to the previous week.
The drama, starring Richard Coyle and Indria Varma, never managed to really capture the public's attention. The first outing pulled in 3.7m (17%) on 27 September but by the following week only 2.8m (13.3%) watched. Over its run it could only manage an average of 3m (13.9%).
BBC1 kept the top spot at the time with Waterloo Road at 8.30pm on 5.3m (24.1%) which was followed by Car Wars on 9.30pm with 4.3m (21%).
Going to California
Five might be promoting Californication heavily but viewers are deserting this particular US acquisition. Starring David Duchovny, the fourth outing of the show could only bring in 685,000 (3.9%) at 10pm.
The opening episode on 11 October, in the same slot, appealed to 1m (6%). By the following week only 769,000 (4.2%) watched.
Both Channel 4 and BBC2 had more viewers at the time.
The finale of C4's hard hitting drama Britz managed to build its audience from Wednesday's opening show with last night's finale, airing from 9pm to 11.25pm, gaining 1.3m (7.3%). This was an increase of 100,000 viewers.
BBC2's The Graham Norton Show at 10pm amused 1.4m (7.6%) for 30 minutes. The channel's audience though fell to 532,000 (3.9%) at 10.30pm for Newsnight.
Five was in a much stronger position earlier in the evening at 9pm with The Hotel Inspector attracting its highest audience of the year so far.
The 60 minute factual entertainment show averaged a sizeable 1.7m (8.2%). The most popular edition of the show had been on 18 October when 1.4m (6.7%) tuned in at the same time.
BBC2's comedy shows continue to remain a cult attraction. The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle at 9pm had 1m (4.7%) which was followed at 9.30pm with 909,000 (4.5%) seeing sketch show The Peter Serafinowicz Show.
All hours shares for Thursday 1 November: BBC1 – 24.6%, ITV1 – 18.3%, C4 – 8.3%, BBC2 – 7.2%, Five – 4.3%, multichannel – 36.7%.
Peaktime (6pm to 10.30pm) shares: BBC1 – 28.5%, ITV1 – 19.6%, C4 – 7.5%, BBC2, 7.5%, Five – 4.5%, multichannel – 31.8%.
