Seven-way election debate speaks to 3m

Friday

The BBC’s debate saw Penny Mordaunt and Angela Rayner represent the Conservatives and Labour as part of a seven-way showdown. 

It informed 3m (20.9%) but was no match for the first leaders debate of the election on ITV, which saw Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer go head-to-head to 4.8m (31.9%), peaking at 5.2m (38.5%) at 10pm.  

The seven-way debate was up against Channel 4’s live coverage of the international football and went over the 2.6m (19.6%) that tuned into the game to dominate the PSBs ratings, landing ahead of the 2.1m (15.8%) slot average for BBC1 from 7.30pm-9pm.  

The 90-minute debate on BBC1 peaked in its closing stages, with 3.2m tuning in towards the end of the programme before political comedy panel show Have I Got News for You picked up the baton at 9pm with a crowd of 3.3m (21.9%).  

Also at 9pm, BBC2 continued with the penultimate episode of Hidden Treasures of the National Trust to 710,000 (5.2%), slightly down on the 970,000 (8.2%) that tuned into its opening episode. The series is available as a boxset on iPlayer.  

ITV1 played an episode of Beat the Chasers to 1.5m while Channel 4’s coverage of the football continued, and an episode of drama Dalgleish rounded up the PSBs with 327,000 (2.3%) starting at 8pm.  

Saturday  

On Saturday, BBC1 drama Rebus continued for its fourth episode to 1.2m at 9pm, almost halving the 2m (18%) that tuned into the drama’s opening episode earlier this month. The six-parter is available as a boxset on iPlayer.  

Meanwhile, BBC2’s musical offering Tom Jones at the BBC entertained 682,000 (6.5%) at 9.30pm.  

Elsewhere, ITV1 and Channel 4 both played films across the primetime slots, with Skyfall and The Equalizer airing.  

The documentary film Heatwave: Summer of ’76 played on Channel 5 from 9.30pm to inform 644,000 (6.6%) broadly matching BBC2s offering and played until 11pm.  

Sunday

Channel 4’s grand finale of The Piano played out to 1.6m (11.6%) on Sunday evening at 9pm, exactly in line with the 1.6m that tuned in to last year’s finale with a share of 12.3%.  

The music competition format had opened on Channel 4 with 1.9m (15.3%) in April, with the final episode landing well ahead of the channel’s 776,000 (5.7%) slot benchmark.  

Meanwhile, BBC2 debuted documentary series On Thin Ice: Putin vs Greenpeace, airing the first two episodes across the 9pm-10pm slot of the six-part series, landing 472,000 (3.3%) and 476,000 (3.5%) respectively.  

The series, which is also available as a boxset on iPlayer, was unable to hit the 1m (7.2%) slot average nor Norma Percy’s recent Putin doc Putin vs The West: At War which opened with 1.1m (7.8%) in a Monday slot but was closer to its closing episode of 630,000 (4.3%) of the two-parter.  

Also airing a documentary at 9pm, Channel 5’s Shetland: Scotland’s Wonderous Isles informed 449,000 (3.2%) falling broadly level with BBC2 across the slot.  

Meanwhile, ITV1’s charity event Soccer Aid for Unicef 2024 played over four hours starting at 6pm to a crowd of 2.8m (20.8%). It peaked around 8pm with 3.5m (23.7%) as celebrities including Roman Kemp and Bobby Brazier played for charity.  

BBC1 played the film Darkest Hour from 8pm.