Ben Fogle’s Congo adventure sets off with 650,000

Channel 5’s three-part travelogue made a quiet start on a Sunday night where factual offerings on linear struggled against their scripted rivals on BBC1 and ITV1. 

The Mentorn Media docuseries was shy of the 750,000 (5/3%) slot average and was adrift of the 960,000 (7.1%) who tuned into Lost Worlds with Ben Fogle in the same slot on a Thursday in October 2022. It was also edged out by the 760,000 (6.3%) who tuned into feature doc Ben Fogle and the Buried City at the same time on a Tuesday in May.  

Into the Congo was just behind The Garden’s 90-minute single Miners’ Strike: A Frontline Story, which informed 730,000 (5.7%) on BBC2, behind the 950,000 (6.7%) benchmark. However, the doc was comfortably ahead of the 440,000 (3%) who watched Murder in the Pacific at the same time on a Thursday in March.  

Channel 4 aired a repeat of Concorde: The Race for Supersonic to 490,000 (3.5%), roughly half the 863,000 (7%) who watched the initial transmission in the earlier 8.30pm slot on a Saturday in November.  

Love Island: All Stars on ITV2 bested its unscripted competition on the main channels, with 900,000 (6.5%) tuning into the penultimate episode.  

BBC1’s juggernaut Death in Paradise dominated the 9pm slot with 4.6m (32.9%), drawing double the audience of rival drama Trigger Point on ITV1, which gripped a steady 2.1m (15.3%). The latter series is boxsetted on ITVX.  

Earlier in the evening, BBC1’s coverage of the Bafta Film Awards hauled in 3m (21.1%) across its two hours from 7pm, marking a jump on last year’s audience of 2.6m (16.6%).

Saturday 

BBC1 and ITV1 continued to vie for Saturday night dominance, as the latter unveiled the latest winner of The Masked Singer to 4.4m (31.9%), nudging ahead of the 4m (27.7%) series average. 

The 90-minute finale was the most watched programme across the hour from 7.50pm, though its opening 30 minutes was topped by Michael McIntyre’s Big Show, which entertained 4.2m (28.9%) on BBC1 from 6.50pm-7.50pm. 

ITV1’s triumph continued with the return of The 1% Club for a third outing. The quiz show pulled in 4.1m (32.7%) from 8.50pm, comfortably ahead of the previous series opener (3.7m/30.4%) which aired at the slightly later time of 9.25pm on a Saturday in April.  

The 1% Club fended off competition from Pointless Celebrities on BBC1, which entertained 2.1m (15.9%) from 8.35pm.  

Elsewhere at 9pm, a repeat of Dad’s Army on BBC2 took in 550,000 (4.3%), level with C4’s Lost Temples of Cambodia which informed 550,000 (4.1%). The opening of the Bright Button three-parter could not match the 881,000 (7.9%) who watched the debut of Ancient Egypt By Train with Alice Roberts at 9pm on a Saturday in June.  

C5’s repeat of The Big Freeze: Winter ’63 brought in 810,000 (6.6%).  

Earlier in the evening Gladiators remained steady with 4.3m (30.4%) on BBC1, nearly double the 2.4m (16.3%) audience who tuned into the final episode of ITV1’s reboot of Wheel of Fortune at 6.20pm.  

Friday 

Studio Lambert staple Gogglebox returned for its 23rd series on C4 with 2.2m (17.5%), broadly level with the previous series opener of 2.3m (17%) in September.  

It was on par with BBC1’s Would I Lie to You? which befuddled 2.3m (17.4%). A repeat of Beat the Chasers: Celebrity Special took in 1.5m (12%) on ITV1, double the audience who tuned into the second part of Sue Perkins: Lost in Alaska on C5, which dipped from 854,000 (7%) last week to 700,000 (5.4%).  

Match of the Day broadcast the Women’s Super League match between Chelsea and Man City on BBC2 to 560,000 (4.6%) across its two and a half hours from 7pm, according to Barb data supplied by overnights.tv. 

On multichannel, Love Island: All Stars pulled 800,000 (6.2%) on ITV2.