1.3m Fallout with C4

C4's Fallout

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Channel 4's powerful drama Fallout, part of its Disarming Britain season, made a respectable show of things with an average audience of 1.3m (8.8%) at 10pm.

The feature-length single drama, about the fatal stabbing of a black teenager, managed to hit a high of 1.7m (8.7%) at the start. The drama, which sharply divided the critics, attracted an average audience on C4+1.

The programme, adapted by Roy Williams from his stage play, was above the channel's slot average for the year so far of 1m (6.7%) and on par with the broadcaster's performance for last year of 1.3m (8.5%).

Fallout was a big attraction with younger viewers with 34.4% of the audience coming from the 16-34-year-old age range. Upmarket ABC1 viewers were a little harder to convince as that demographic group made up 32.9% of the audience. The show also had a strong appeal for women as 57.3% of the audience were female.

The drama is on a par with C4's other recent one-off drama Poppy Shakespeare on 31 March when 1.3m (6%) watched in a 9pm slot.

At the time Fallout was on, C4 had more viewers than Five as Grey's Anatomy at 10pm drew 965,000 (5.5%) for an hour. BBC2 was initially in a stronger position with the 45-minute chat show hosted by Graham Norton on 1.9m (9.4%). The following Newsnight informed 754,000 (5.3%).

BBC1's Ten O'Clock News was, once again, the viewer's preference at the time with 4.9m (26.7%). ITV1's own News at Ten gained 2.5m (12.9%).

Both Five and BBC2 had popular drama series draw to a close at 9pm.

BBC2's 11-part second series of Heroes drew to a close with 2.3m (10.1%) for 45-minutes, up by 300,000 on the previous week.

The US sci-fi drama, while not being able to match the highs of the first run, was still a reliable attraction for the channel with a series average of 2.5m (11%).

As well as bringing in strong viewing figures to the channel it also was a big draw for both ABC1 and younger viewers. The upmarket demographic accounted for 52.6% of the entire audience while those in the 16 to 34 age range made up 35.3% of the audience.

House on Five also came to a close last night at 9pm. The Hugh Laurie-fronted drama has once again proved to be a reliable crowd-pleaser. Over 16 episodes the show averaged 1.8m (7.8%) with last night's show holding firm on 1.8m (8%). The most popular edition hit 2.1m (9.1%) on 3 April. The US drama comfortably cleared the channel's slot average for this year of 1.5m (6.5%).

Despite Five and BBC2 both putting in solid showings at 9pm neither could really match C4 as Big Brother interested 3.1m (13.7%) for an hour. A further 410,000 watched on C4+1.

In the key 9pm slot there wasn't too much to separate the two main terrestrial channels with BBC1 just managing to claim the spoils.

ITV1's factual Abba: the Mama Mia! Story serenaded a decent enough 4.4m (19.2%) for an hour. So far this year though the commercial network has averaged 4.7m (20.5%) in that hour-long slot.

Just nudging ahead of ITV1 at the time was the penultimate episode of Criminal Justice on BBC1. The drama which has been stripped across this week has been yo-yoing up and down. Last night's fourth part took a downturn with 4.6m (20.3%), down by 400,000 on Wednesday's episode at the same time.

Having been shunted to BBC2 yesterday to make way for Andy Murray's Wimbledon match Celebrity Masterchef was in its regular 8pm slot on BBC1 last night, picking up a solid 4.3m (21.2%) across the hour. It wasn't enough to topple ITV1's The Bill from the top spot though as 4.7m (23.2%) tuned in for the popular cop drama.

All hours shares for Thursday 3 July 2008: BBC1 – 24.3%, ITV1 – 17.6%, C4 – 9% (C4+1 – 0.8%), BBC2 – 6.7%, Five – 4.8%, multichannel – 36.8%.

Peaktime (6pm to 10.30pm) shares: BBC1 – 24.6%, ITV1 – 20.5%, C4 – 9.9% (C4+1 – 0.7%), BBC2 – 8.5%, Five – 4.8%, multichannel – 31.1%.