Monday Ratings Round Up: EastEnders Ratings Remain Strong Despite Plot Controversy

Monday evening saw Shameless return with 3 million viewers to Channel Four while Glee pulled in its best ever ratings for E4 with its season two premier. EastEnders kicked off the week with over 10 million viewers despite the controversy surrounding the baby-swap plot in the BBC soap which continues to attract criticism. It was a strong night for soaps all round with Emmerdale and Coronation Street also starting the week with high ratings.
DaybreakWe start our ratings round-up for Monday with the ratings for breakfast television. Breakfast on BBC One had 1.6 million viewers compared to 700,000 for Daybreak. At 7pm on BBC One the first edition of the year of The One Show had a very strong 5 million viewers. Emmerdale however, was far ahead with 8.5 million viewers at 7pm while Channel Four News had 700,000 viewers. Earlier on Channel Four teen-soap Hollyoaks pulled in 1.4m million viewers.
At 8pm on BBC One soap EastEnders pulled in over 10 million viewers. Ratings for EastEnders continue to remain strong despite the negative publicity it has received EastEndersover its baby-swap storyline. Actress Natalie Cassidy, who played Sonja Fowler in the soap, has joined the criticism of the soap in her column for New Magazine. However, actor Derek Martin, who plays Charlie Slater, defended the soap on yesterday’s Daybreak.
EastEnders was seen by 10.4 million at 8pm. Following EastEnders at 8.30pm was Panorama with 3.8 million viewers. At 8pm on BBC Two University Challenge was seen by 2.8 million viewers followed by Baking Made Easy with 2.1 million viewers. On ITV1 The Lakes was seen by 4.4 million viewers. Coronation Street had a very strong evening with its 7.30 episode being the most watched programme of the day with 11 million viewers. However, the 8.30 episode of the Granada soap saw 1.1 million viewers abandon the soap as 9.9 million viewers tuned in. At 8pm on Channel Four Celebrity Come Dine With Me entertained 1.8 million viewers.
At 9pm BBC One’s veteran drama Silent Witness, starring Emilia Fox, continued to dominate ratings. Now in its 14th series the detective drama shows no signs of diminishing with 7.2 million Silent Witnessviewers – up slightly on last week’s opening two-parter of the new series. On BBC Two at 9pm was science documentary series Horizon which had 1.6 million viewers for the edition What Is One Degree? The Biggest Loser on ITV1 had 3.6 million viewers while One Born Every Minute on Channel Four had 2.9 million viewers.At 10pm Matt LeBlanc’s new comedy Episodes on BBC Two opened with 1.8 million viewers while Shameless returned to Channel Four with 3 million viewers. Elsewhere last night and Neighbours on Channel Five had 1.2 million viewers at 5.30pm. The second series of Glee kicked off on E4 with 1.6 million viewers.
A further 300,000 or so viewers watched the episode on E4’s timeshift channel. That brings the combined audience for Glee to 1.9 million viewers – giving the musical comedy its best performance on E4 ever. By comparison its season one premier was seen by 1.2 million viewers on E4 last January.
Silent Witness continues tonight on BBC One at 9pm and Shameless continues tonight on Channel Four at 10pm.