UK TV Charts - w/e 1st February 2009

A rundown of the Top 20 most popular UK TV programmes or series for the week ending Sunday 1st February 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)................10.18 *
2 Dancing On Ice (ITV1)....................9.09 *
3 EastEnders (BBC1)........................8.60 *
4 Wild At Heart (ITV1).....................8.20
5 Emmerdale (ITV1).........................7.57 *
6 National Lottery: In It To Win It (BBC1).7.53
7 Casualty (BBC1)..........................7.33
8 Unforgiven (ITV1)........................7.11
9 Lark Rise To Candleford (BBC1)...........6.54
10 Harry Hill's TV Burp (ITV1)..............6.49
11 (Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life (BBC1). 6.34
11 (Total Wipeout (BBC1).....................6.34
13 Antiques Roadshow (BBC1).................6.17
14 Holby City (BBC1)........................5.80
15 Trial and Retribution (ITV1).............5.79
16 Hustle (BBC1)............................5.73
17 Your Country Needs You (BBC1)............5.61
18 The Bill (ITV1)..........................5.58 *
19 New You've Been Framed (ITV1)............5.34
20 Piers Morgan On Dubai (ITV1).............5.23

Chart commentary: Another pretty unremarkable week of figures with the long-running Winter schedule shows digging their claws into the top end of the chart. David Attenborough's one-off Charles Darwin nature documentary made a strong Sunday night showing and BBC1 seems to have found a new Saturday night entertainment hit with Richard "hamster" Hammond and his 'It's a Knockout'-like romp 'Total Wiepout.' Oh well. I considered dicontinuing the blog when I realised I'd actually have to type the name "P**rs M*rg*n" (I'm not prepared to type it twice in one night, sorry) for the number 20 slot as the ghasstly, odious so-called journalist did well with some cheap documentary where he wore shades and smarmed at people. Fortunately I won't have to repeat the experience next week as the second, undoubtedly equally vacuous show lost a million viewers and won't touch the Top 20. Personally, 'P**rs M*rg*n on Fire" is a show I'd pay to see. Or make. Interestingly 'Hustle' took a knock from P**rs on overnight figures but the former scored a spectacular 700,000 extra viewers on timeshift (shows recorded and watched within one week of broadcast) to reclaim top position in the 9pm Thursday night slot. Spin on that, M*rg*n! Indifferent figures for the finale of the Lloyd-Webber Eurovision fest 'Your Country Needs You' seem to suggest that the country actually doesn't need, want, or even have much interest in, the increasingly-dull Eurovision Song Contest. I sense another 'nul points' debacle come May.