5.7m return to The Street
- Published: 09 November 2007 12:20
- Last Updated: 09 November 2007 12:20
Jimmy McGovern's BBC1 drama series The Street returned with a strong audience of 5.7m viewers (26.2%) last night, its best ratings performance ever.
The award-winning drama which follows the lives of the inhabitants on a Manchester street hit an audience high of 5.9m (26%) in the opening 15 minutes from 9pm.
The audience for the first episode of the six-part series was comfortably above the channel's slot average for the year so far of 5m (22.6%).
The first series of The Street, which aired last year, gained a series high of 5.4m (25.6%) for its opening episode on 13 April. Over its entire run it averaged 4.3m (20.2%) in the 9pm slot.
The Street completely dominated viewing at the time with no other channel managing to break the 3m viewers mark.
Tough times for ITV
ITV1 continues to have a tough time in the 9pm slot.
Its Whistleblower drama did not cover itself in glory over the past six weeks with the series finale last Thursday (1 November) only attracting 2.9m (14.1%).
Last night's one-off drama, The Killer in Me, didn't do any better. That show only interested 2.8m (12.8%) in the same 60 minute slot, but it did at least manage to retain a steady audience throughout.
The audience for The Killer in Me was down by some margin on the channel's slot average of 3.6m (16.1%).
Here we go, here we go…
A little further behind ITV1 at the time was Five's live Uefa Cup action.
The game between FC Nurnberg and Everton was supported by a strong 2.1m (9.3%) with the audience holding steady at 2.5m for the second 45 minutes of the match from 9pm.
The viewing figure for the football was well above the channel's slot average of 1.5m (6.8%).
There wasn't much to choose between Channel 4 and BBC2 at 9pm. The final part of BBC2's sitcom The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle drew just 1.1m (4.8%).
And the finale of comedy The Peter Serafinowicz Show that followed at 9.30pm scrapped together just 780,000 (3.5%).
Both BBC2 and C4 were in a much stronger position at 8pm.
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's new series for C4, River Cottage: Gone Fishing, at 9pm gained a respectable 2.6m (10.6%) over an hour, an increase of 300,000 viewers on the slot average.
Beaver action
BBC2's Autumnwatch once again broke the 3m mark at 8pm with 3.2m viewers (13.3%) watching for an hour.
BBC1 was top dog at 8pm with its ongoing drama Waterloo Road. The school drama took 5.3m (22.1%), its audience on par with the previous week. The Tortured Soul storyline in ITV1's The Bill gained 5m (20.7%), an increase of 800,000 on last Thursday's outing.
Earlier in peaktime Five also aired live coverage of Bolton Wanderers' tie in the Uefa Cup against Bayern Munich. Five's entire coverage between 5.55pm and 8pm had 1.8m viewers (8.6%).
All hours shares for Thursday 8 November 2007: BBC1 – 23.6%, ITV1 – 17.5%, C4 – 8.6%, BBC2 – 8.4%, Five – 7.3%, multichannel – 34.8%.
Peaktime ( 6pm to 10.30pm) shares: BBC1 – 26.3%, ITV1 – 18.2%, BBC2 – 9%, Five – 8.6%, C4 – 7.9%, multichannel 30%.
