ITV ratings woe continues

The weekend continued ITV’s ratings woe as the commercial broadcaster continued to suffer from poor viewing figures.

Over the weekend ITV continued to suffer from poor ratings as viewers went elsewhere in search of something to watch. However, the absence of Strictly Come Dancing from BBC One’s line-up also meant BBC One didn’t perform brilliantly on Saturday night.

The most watched programme of Saturday was the first in a new series of In It To Win It, part of the National Lottery show. The Dale Winton fronted show was seen by nearly six million viewers. Not far behind was medical drama Casualty which regained some lost ground over previous weeks with 5.7 million viewers.

The long running drama series had been suffering from lower ratings due to tough competition from The X-Factor but with the conclusion of the ITV singing contest viewers are gradually returning to the medical drama.

Over on ITV1 on Saturday evening the most watched programme for the commercial channel was All Star Family Fortunes Christmas Special with 5.7 million. Not far behind was yet another repeat of You’ve Been Framed! with 5.5 million viewers. A repeat of the popular war-time detective series Foyle’s War wasn’t a big puller for ITV however with just 3.4 million viewers.

On Sunday evening BBC One had the upper hand, once more, over its commercial counter-part. An adaptation of the John Buchan novel The 39 Steps, starring Rupert Penry-Jones, was a big attraction for BBC One was an impressive 7.2 million viewers. It beat ITV’s 60’s drama series The Royal which once again suffered from disappointing ratings, only 4.2 million viewers watching the latest episode.

The Royal has suffered somewhat from poor ratings for most of the year with the series dropping from its usual average audience of up to 8 million to barely pulling in over 4 million viewers. Following The Royal at 9pm was one-off ghost drama Affinity which starred Zoe Tapper. The Victorian set film could only pull in 2.7 million viewers.