Thursday Ratings: EastEnders Fire Tops 8 million

 

Overnight ratings for Thursday reveal that the dramatic fire in the Queen Vic, in EastEnders, topped 8 million viewers. ITV’s crime/legal drama Law & Order returned with 5 million viewers.

Ratings date for Thursday reveal that Daybreak once again held steady in the ratings. The performance of Daybreak across the week has been higher than the average for GMTV over the past few months and has also gone against some predictions – many thought the ratings would fall. Daybreak attracted, once again, 900,000 viewers yesterday morning compared with 1.4 million for Breakfast on BBC One. ITV bosses will no doubt be content with Daybreak’s performance across the week.

In the evening and The One Show saw a rise in ratings following Wednesday evening’s lull. According to overnight figures it attracted 4.1 million viewers which is up 600,000 viewers on Wednesday evening. At the same time on ITV1 the first edition of Emmerdale had 6 million viewers. At 7.30pm on BBC One a dramatic episode of EastEnders topped 8 million viewers. The episode saw Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) set fire to the Queen Vic with most of the residents of Albert Square still inside. The dramatic scenes – full of explosive stunts – is the climax to Peggy Mitchell (Barbara Windsor) time in the soap. The episode in all pulled in 8.5 million viewers with a further 1.5 million viewers watching on BBC Three at 10pm. This gives the episode a combined figure of 10 million viewers and when final figures are released the overall rating is likely to be higher.

Elsewhere last night and at 8pm on BBC One consumer rights programme Watchdog had 5 million viewers while another edition of Emmerdale on ITV1 had 6.6 million viewers followed by Coronation Street with 7.5 million viewers. At 9pm Small Teen, Big World had just 2.8 million viewers for BBC One! BBC Two was only narrowly behind with Gareth Malone’s Extraordinary School for Boys which pulled in 2.3 million viewers. The third series of Law & Order on ITV1 launched at 9pm. The crime/legal drama, which stars Bradley Walsh and Jamie Bamber, is a remake of the American series and returned with a steady 5 million viewers.