Saturday 13th October 2007




A few weeks ago England were struggling in the Rugby World Cup and ITV’s exclusive live coverage of the competition seemed more like a bind than a coup, but somehow England have managed to battle their way to a second consecutive Rugby World Cup Final and ITV is reaping the benefits. After heroically overcoming Australia last weekend the English team faced France in the semi-final on Saturday evening. Even those viewers not particularly interested in rugby would have heard of the team’s exploits, and the nation’s interest was well and truly piqued as 9.5m (41.2%) tuned in to ITV1’s semi-final coverage between 7:30 – 10:15pm. England got off to a flying start with a try in the second minute, but it turned out to be a tightly contested game with some late kicks from Johnny Wilkinson giving England the victory. This kept viewers interested, with the peak quarter-hour audience of 12.1m (50.3%) occurring at 9:30pm. ITV1 finished the evening with an average peaktime (7-11pm) share of 35.7%), and now has the mouth-watering prospect of an England vs South Africa World Cup Final to look forward to next weekend.

Thursday 11th October 2007




Thursday was a big night for Five as it lined up two brand new US acquisitions in peaktime. First off was Californication at 10pm, a 13-part (including the pilot) comedy drama featuring former X-Files star David Duchovny as Hank Moody, a writer seeking fame and fortune in Hollywood. Moody’s novel gets turned into a bad film and he’s suffering from an acute case of writer’s block – not helped by his fair share of women troubles and an off-the-rails pre-teen daughter to keep him occupied. The show was originally broadcast on the Showtime cable network in the US, and in general the critical reaction was favourable. Californication aired in the 10 – 10:45pm slot on Five, attracting 1m (6%).

Tuesday 09th October 2007




Britain’s tallest man is a staggering seven foot seven inches, but even that falls short of the world record of eight foot five inches. These giants among men were the subject of an hour-long documentary on ITV1 last night that showed how being tall definitely has its downside. Superhuman: Giants measured up well in the ratings, attracting 4.8m (22.5%) between 9-10pm. This was a good performance for a Factual programme in this slot, giving ITV1 a narrow lead over a repeat of Silent Witness on BBC1 (4.2m, 19.5%). BBC2 aired the concluding part of Stephen Fry: HIV and Me in the same 9-10pm slot, attracting 1.9m (9%). This was down on 2.5m (11.2%) for the first part last week.

For a more detailed summary of the week’s television, please visit http://www.attentional.com/bristolmediablog.php