Television Highlights w/c 11th June 2007
Monday 11th June 2007
Prison Break, Fox’s action-packed chase drama concluded on Five at 22:00, with the 22nd and final episode attracting an audience of 1.3m (7.6%), 103,000 up on last week’s episode. This brought the series average to 1.6m (8.2%). This is down on the ratings for the first series, which ended in June last year and drew an average audience of 1.8m (9.2%). Five has not been able to outrun Sky in its pursuit of the third series so, as was the case for Channel 4’s Lost after its second series, Prison Break will make the transition from terrestrial to multichannel, and a new home on Sky One, for series three. Lost has become one of Sky One’s most successful dramas since it moved to the satellite channel and established itself in the 22:00 timeslot on Sunday.
Tuesday 12th June 2007
Anybody responsible for commissioning Light Entertainment (especially sit-coms) would pay a king’s ransom to find out what makes people laugh, so I hope they were paying attention to Lenny’s Britain (BBC1, 9pm) last night. In this new four-part series, affable comedian Lenny Henry travels the length and breadth of the country to find out what raises a chuckle. The programme was a BBC/Open University co-production, hinting at a serious side to Henry’s investigation into the dynamics of humour. The programme faced tough competition from Britain’s Got Talent over on ITV1 (going strong with 7m, 29.9%), leaving Lenny Henry with 2.6m (11.4%).
Wednesday 13th June 2007
Business tycoon Sir Alan Sugar’s search for a third ‘apprentice’ reached a climax last night as 27 year old internet entrepreneur Simon Ambrose heard the famous words ‘You’re hired!’. The final of The Apprentice was also good business for BBC1, pulling in 6.8m viewers and a 27.4% share. This was the highest ever rating for the show, vindicating the decision to switch it from BBC2 to BBC1 for the third series. Last year’s final on BBC2 attracted 5.8m (26.6%). BBC2 didn’t entirely miss out to its older brother – a sizeable audience of 4.2m (18.4%) tuned into BBC2 at 10pm (as the main BBC1 show ended) to watch The Apprentice: You’re Hired!, a sort of Big Brother’s Little Brother for Apprentice fans with Adrian Chiles in the Dermot O’Leary role.
Thursday 14th June 2007
Detective duo Dalziel and Pascoe returned to solve some more murders on BBC1 at 9pm last night. The story is split across two episodes, with the concluding half on Friday evening. This tactic can work well, provided the first episode can hook enough viewers. The last series averaged 6.2m (26.1%) back in September 2006, but last night’s audience was down from this at 5.3m (22%).
It seems the talent of actors Warren Clarke (Dalziel) and Colin Buchanan (Pascoe) could not compete with the ‘talents’ of ITV1, as Britain’s Got Talent saw its ratings increase for the fifth night in a row. Last night’s bumper audience of 7.9m (33.8%) between 9pm and 10:30pm was a 60% increase on last Saturday’s audience of 4.9m. ITV1’s highest quarter-hour share nearly always coincides with one of the soaps, but last night it was the 10pm slot with an average share of 40%. This was well above the slot average, and second only to the Champions League between Chelsea and Liverpool back on 1st May for the year to date.
Friday 15th June 2007
It’s 60 years since India was under the Raj, and to mark the occasion BBC2 is showing the three-part series Lost World of the Raj (21:00 – 22:00). The opening episode mixed home-video footage with accounts from those who lived the life to take us back to a time when expats tried to instil some quintessential Englishness into their daily lives, whilst riding elephants into the jungle wearing pith helmets. Given the stiff mainstream competition from Dalziel and Pascoe on BBC1 and Britain’s Got Talent on ITV1, Lost World of The Raj attracted a respectable 1.8m (7.6%).
Saturday 16th June 2007
Saturday evenings have become synonymous with Light Entertainment recently, so it made a change for BBC1 to launch new drama series, Jekyll, in a Saturday 9-9:55pm slot. Hartswood Films’ six-part series stars James Nesbitt as Tom Jackmann and James Nesbitt as Tom Hyde, the only living descendent of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic tale is ripe for a reworking, and Nesbitt seems a perfect choice for a man battling against his alter-ego. Episode 1 got off to a solid start, attracting 5.1m (23.5%).
Sunday 17th June 2007
The live final of Britain’s Got Talent took centre stage on ITV1 on Sunday between 8pm and 9pm. The Talkback Thames/Syco co-production has steadily been picking up viewers all week, and the indications looked good for a blockbuster finish. It didn’t disappoint, with a phenomenal average audience of 11.1m (44.3%) and a peak of 13.5m (51.7%) at 9pm (the show overran by five minutes to finish at five minutes past). This meant that ITV1 had more viewers than the other four terrestrial channels combined for the duration of the show. The results show (10 – 10:30pm) was equally impressive, as 10.9m (46.9%) tuned in to watch unassuming opera singer Paul Potts win the competition (and book a place in the line-up for this year’s Royal Variety Performance). The real winner was the format itself, reinventing the concept of the variety show such as 1960’s hit Opportunity Knocks for the X Factor generation, and appealing to viewers of all ages in the process.
