UK TV Chart - w/e 14th June 2009

Here's the rundown of the Top 20 most popular UK TV programmes or series for the week ending Sunday 14th 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) Coronation Street (ITV1)..................8.64 *
2) Football World Cup Qualifier (ITV1, Wed)..7.98
3) EastEnders (BBC1).........................7.52 *
4) Ashes To Ashes (BBC1).....................7.18
5) Have I Got News For You (BBC1)............5.83
6) Emmerdale (ITV1)..........................5.81 *
7) Holby City (BBC1).........................5.79
8) Casualty (BBC1)...........................5.28
9) Michael Mcintyre's Comedy Roadshow (BBC1).5.19
10) Kingdom (ITV1)............................4.70
11) The Bill (ITV1)...........................4.69
12) Traffic Cops (BBC1).......................4.52
13) Hope Springs (BBC1).......................4.40
14) Heartbeat (ITV1)..........................4.32
15) Celebrity Masterchef (BBc1)...............4.15
16) The One Show (BBC1).......................3.98 *
17) Nation Lottery Draws (BBC1, Sat)..........3.95
18) All Star Mr & Mrs (ITV1)..................3.92
19) Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (ITV1)......3.90
20) Robin Hood (BBC1).........................3.88

Chart commentary: Cosmic balance is returned and the natural roder of things is restored as, after a few weeks of reality gubbins hogging the top spot in the charts, the soaps regain their usual positions albeit with their numbers down as tends to be the norm during the summer when people have better thigns to do than watch fanciful soaps. Good to see a sizable audience stuck around for the excellent finale to the much-improved second series of 'Ashes To Ashes' and it's bye bye to 'Hope Springs' which plunges in its second week and is unlikely to appear for a third as its figures continue to fall. 'Robin Hood' sneaks back into the chart for the first time in weeks but it hardly covers itself with glory, slipping in only by virtue of everything else performing poorly. Stephen Fry's 'Kingdom' trundles along with about half the viewers who watched the first series a couple of years ago - it seems that the age of the sleepy Sunday night drama is well and truly gone.

Next chart will be published later today...