Tuesday 23 June 2009

UK TV Chart - w/e 7th June 2009

Here's the rundown of the Top 20 most popular UK TV programmes or series for the week ending Sunday 7th June 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 * News broadcasts are excluded from the figures.

1) The Apprentice (BBC1)...................9.54 *
2) Coronation Street (ITV1)................8.39 *
3) EastEnders (BBC1).......................7.81 *
4) Ashes To Ashes (BBC1)...................6.41
5) Hope Springs (BBC1).....................6.25
6) Casualty (BBC1).........................5.91
7) Emmerdale (ITV1)........................5.89 *
8) Michael Macintyre's Comedy Roadshow
(BBC1).......5.50
9) Have I Got News For You (BBC1)..........5.40
10) Holby City (BBC1).......................5.36
11) Kingdom (ITV1)..........................5.32
12) The Apprentice: The Final Five (BBC1)...5.06
13) National Lottery Saturday Draws (BBC1)..5.05
14) Primeval (ITV1).........................4.95
15) Heartbeat (ITV1)........................4.90
16) Countryfile (BBC1)......................4.77
17) The Bill (ITV1).........................4.76 *
18) Crimewatch UK (BBC1)....................4.49
19) (Totally Saturday (BBC1).................4.37
19) (The Apprentice - You're Fired! (BBC2)...4.37

Chart commentary: A convincing BBC win this week with 14 titles in the chart - incredibly, three of them are variations of one show with The Apprentice taking the top spot for its Sunday night final and the normal Wednesday episode and then showings for a lead-in show and the usual BBC2 spin-off. A prime example of how to milk a cash cow to maximum effect but, I'd have thought, little lasting interesting. Can you remember who won it now? BBC1's new Sunday night drama, Hope Springs, makes a promising start (and, from the one episode I've seen so far seems a decent enough weffort, if not exactly earth-shatteringly original)...but don't get too attached to it, ratings have halved in two weeks and we're not likely to see it sticking aorund in the Top 20 for long. Odd how new dramas can't seem to hold their audiences any more - it's either TV fatigue brought on the endless barrage of reality shows or just that new dramas aren't exciting the audience enough to stay with them. Ashes To Ashes bucks this trend, though, with another solid figure and an even better one due for the final episode next week. Shouty odd-voiced comedian Michael Macintyre scores a surprise hit with his Saturday night comedy, Live at the Apollo by any other name and the disappointing figures for the Primeval finale are the numbers that probably finished off any chance of a fourth series. BBC1's latest attempt to make Graham Norton a big Saturday night star falters on its firt showing, barely scraping into the Top 20 (figures have been falling ever since) and the appeal of Stephen Fry's sleepy Sunday night show Kingdom seems to be on the wane. Another drama for ITV to bring the axe to, I wonder?

Coming soon:: Massive reviews update....Transformers at the movies, Ghostbusters on Blu-Ray, The International on DVD, the new Paolo Nutini CD, Dr Who and the War Games on DVD, the new novel by (Colin) Bateman, Fireball XL5 on DVD and a slew of new/recent Network DVD releases and much, much more....

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