60 minute One Show starts well

The first hour-long edition of magazine show The One Show performed well for BBC One last night as the corporation trials the new extended format.

The first 60 minute edition of BBC One’s magazine series The One Show performed well for the corporation last night despite going up against Coronation Street. The corporation is trailing the extended editions of The One Show on Wednesday evenings to see if the format works in a longer slot and whether or not viewers will watch the show or turnover at 7.30 for other programming. However, last night’s first 60 minute episode got off to a promising start as it dented ratings for ITV’s flag-ship soap.

According to overnight figures 4.3 million viewers watched the hour-long edition. Meanwhile Coronation Street was seen by 7.8 million viewers and while this is a strong figure it’s still down on the average Wednesday evening rating for the soap. The soap also lost 5% of the audience share on its average performance slipping from 43% to 38%. Previously The One Show has nearly topped Emmerdale in the ratings on several occasions with the ITV Yorkshire soap only narrowly ahead.

If the 60 minute format of the magazine series is deemed a success by BBC bosses it’s likely it’ll roll across the week meaning big changes for the BBC schedules. An hour long edition of the show would dislodge EastEnders from its 7.30 slots on Tuesdays and Thursdays meaning it would likely move to 8pm have a serious impact on dramas, such as Holby City, which usually air in the 8pm slot. However, one plus from such a move would mean that EastEnders and Emmerdale would no longer clash on Tuesday evenings.