UK TV Chart - w/e 12th July 2009

Here's the rundown of the Top 20 most popular UK TV programmes or series for the week ending Sunday 12th July 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)................8.87 *
2) EastEnders (BBC1).......................7.35 *
3) Top Gear (BBC2).........................6.80
4) Torchwood: Children of Earth (BBC1).....6.47 *
5) Casualty (BBC1).........................6.32
6) Emmerdale (ITV1)........................5.98 *
7) Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow (BBC1)..5.37
8) Katie Price Exclusive - with P**rs M*rg*n
(ITV1)..................5.15
9) Kingdom (ITV1)..........................5.14
10) The Bill (ITV1).........................5.12 *
11) (National Lottery Guesstimation (BBC1)...5.05
11) (Total Wipeout (BBC1)....................5.05
13) Celebrity Masterchef (BBC1).............5.03 *
14) Holby City (BBC1).......................4.94
15) The Royal (ITV1)........................4.53
16) Real Crime (ITV1).......................4.32
17) Secret Caribbean with Trevor McDonald
(ITV1)......................4.22
18) Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (ITV1)....4.20
19) Formula 1:German Grand Prix (BBC1)......4.17
20) Michael Jackson Memorial Live (BBC2)....4.05

Chart commentary: The big chart news this week, of course, is the huge and entirely unexpected cross-over success of BBC1's week of Torchwood broadcasts. Across five nightly episodes the Dr Who spin-off finally came of age in a story wich was not only heart-stoppingly gripping but also compulsive viewing for an average of nearly 6.50 million viewers (with the highest-rated episode reaching nearly 6.8 million) as well as huge numbers on the BBC3 repeats and HD and the iPlayer which bring the mini-series total 'reach' audience to around 8 million. Quite remarkable for a series often written-off as a silly, brash, adolescent 'adult' sci-fi romp. 'Children of Earth' was big, important event TV and it bucked the usual trend of the BBC's five-nighter shows (5 Days, Criminal Justice) by maintaining and even increasing its audience. Hopefully Torchwood's success will not only lead to more from the series itself but more intelligent imaginative drama of this sort on prime time BBC1 - those were the stakes Torchwood was playing with this time, the future of prime time sci-fi pretty much depended on it doing well and it clearly surpassed all expectations. Well done Captain Jack.

Not such a 'well done' for the odious P**rs M*rg*n whose much-lauded 'world exclusive' hour-long chat with the ghasty Jordan could only interest around 5 million viewers. Hardly surprising; the British public have better things to do of a Sunday night than watch a slimeball interviewing a genuine 21st century grotesque.