ITV1 soars over Britain from Above
- Published: 11 August 2008 11:54
- Author: Jon Rogers
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- Last Updated: 12 August 2008 08:56
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BBC1's new documentary trilogy Britain From Above made a respectable start last night with 5.2m (21.3%) at 9pm, but couldn't match the heights of a repeat of Midsomer Murders on ITV1.
The hour-long BBC1 show, hosted by Andrew Marr, began with 4.8m (20%) and steadily rose to 5.6m (23.6%) in the final 15 minutes.
The programme was up on the channel's slot average for the year of 5m (20.1%), but just short of last year's slot average of 5.4m (22%).
The first episode was a strong draw for upmarket viewers, with 55.7% of the audience coming from the ABC1 demographic. But the show didn't particularly appeal to younger viewers, with just 17.3% of the show's audience aged between 16 and 34.
Despite the strong showing, Britain from Above was some way behind ITV1's ever-popular Midsomer Murders.
The two-hour drama, Dead Letters, picked up 6.1m (26.1%) over two hours from 8pm. The whodunnit proved to be more popular than last week's new episode, which pulled in 5.5m (23.8%) in the same time slot.
Grabbing the bronze medal at 9pm was Channel 4's daily visit to the Big Brother house with 2.8m (11.7%) watching for an hour. The reality show gained 310,000 on C4+1 an hour later.
The penultimate episode of Long Way Round on BBC2 gained 1.5m (6.3%) while Five's romantic comedy You've Got Mail had 1m (4.5%) from 8pm.
BBC2 aired a Britain From Above spin-off show at 10pm, which pulled in a respectable 2.1m (10.4%) for half an hour.
It easily outperformed C4's Kill It, Skin It, Wear It which could only muster 982,000 (5.7%) over 65-minutes. The show was down almost by a half on its slot average for the year so far of 1.7m (9%). A further 80,000 though watched on C4+1.
C4 was in a stronger position at 8pm when a epsiode of Celebrity Wife Swap marked the start of another series of RDF's Wife Swap. The show pulled in a steady 2m (9%) over the hour, up by 600,000 on the channel's performance so far this year. The C4 show was just behind BBC2's repeat of Top Gear, which pulled in 2.2m (9.8%) in the same same slot.
All hours shares for Sunday 10 August 2008: BBC1 – 19.2%, ITV1 – 14.6%, BBC2 – 13.9%, C4 – 5.5% (C4+1 – 0.6%), Five 3.6%, multichannel – 42.5%.
Peaktime (6pm to 10.30pm) shares: ITV1 – 23.1%, BBC1 – 19.9%, BBC2 – 8.8%, C4 – 7.5% (C4+1 – 0.6%), Five – 4.5%, multichannel – 35.6%.
