UK TV Charts - w/e 18th January 2009

With apologies for this week's delay, here's a rundown of the Top 20 most popular UK TV programmes or series for the week ending Sunday 18th January 2009 collated from information compiled and presented by BARB. Note that figures for multi-episode TV broadcasts (ie soaps or other shows with more than one episode per week) are rounded up into an average figure for the series and are denoted in the chart by *

1 Coronation Street (ITV1)...................10.52m *
2 EastEnders (BBC1)..........................8.94 *
3 Dancing On Ice (ITV1).......................8.41 *
4 Unforgiven (ITV1)...........................7.82
5 Wild At Heart (ITV1)........................7.73
6 Emmerdale (ITV1)............................7.56 *
7 Antiques Roadshow (BBC1)....................7.15
8 (Casualty (BBC1)............................7.00
(National Lottery: In It To Win It (BBC1)....7.00
10 Harry Hill's TV Burp Compilation (ITV1).....6.99
11 Lark Rose To Candleford (BBC1)..............6.46
12 New You've Been Framed (ITV1)...............6.26
13 Hustle (BBC1)...............................5.90
14 Film: Ice Age 2 (ITV1)......................5.85
15 Holby City (BBC1)...........................5.83
16 Hunter (BBC1)...............................5.78
17 Trial And Retribution (ITV1)................5.68
18 Total Wipeout (BBC1)........................5.33
19 The One Show (BBC1)........................5.09 *
20 The Bill (ITV1).............................5.02

Chart comment: An unexceptional week in the ratings as the schedules settle into their Winter groove. Looks as if the two soaps will be maintaining their top positions for the foreseeable but it's heartening to see a hgue range of drama titles cropping up all over the chart - from Lark Rise to Trial and Retibution, around half the Top 20 is made up of non-soap dramas (if you discount Holby and Casualty as soaps). Best of the bunch is Hustle, its figures holding up well in its fifth series which must bode well for a sixth next year (and star Adrian lester has already said he'd be up for one more series). ITV's 'Demons' (deservedly) sinks out of the Top 20 for its third episode and with ratings still tumbling it's not likely to wander back in again. BBC1 will be quietly pleased by the figures for the first episode of its two-part detective drama Hunter, a spin-off from the five-night serial Five Days screened a couple of years ago. Ice Age 2 shows that the right film at the right time can still pull in a decent audience despite the availability of movies on any number of other platforms.