Monday Ratings: EastEnders nears 10 million viewers

 

EastEnders kicked off the week with nearly 10 million viewers while the return of Whitechapel to ITV1 for a new three-part series managed to beat Spooks on BBC One but was considerably down on last year’s figures.

The start of a new week saw 1.4 million viewers tune in to Breakfast on BBC One in the morning compared with 700,000 viewers for Daybreak over on ITV1. The first edition of The One Show of the new week at 7pm held a decent 4.3 million viewers. At 7.30pm on BBC One Saints and Scroungers appealed to 4 million viewers. Over on BBC Two at 6.30 Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two had 2.3 million viewers while at 7pm Commonwealth Games: Games Today pulled in 1.6 million viewers across the hour. ITV soap Emmerdale continued to pull in strong ratings with the aftermath of last week’s dramatic crash still being felt – it interested 7.2 million viewers last night. Following Emmerdale on ITV1 at 7.30pm was Coronation Street, the first edition of the evening, which had 8.9 million viewers (inc. HD). At 6pm on Channel Four animated comedy series The Simpsons had 1.7 million viewers with teen-soap Hollyoaks kicking off the week at 6.30pm with just 1.2 million viewers. At 7pm the broadcaster’s news programme had 900,000 viewers compared with 200,000 viewers for Channel Five News at the same time.

At 8pm BBC One soap EastEnders was the most watched programme of the night – easily beating Coronation Street which failed to break the 9 million mark. The powerful episode of the soap saw the character of Billie Jackson (Devon Anderson) killed off in a alcohol related death. The episode was seen by nearly 10 million viewers on BBC One – 9.7 million viewers – giving the soap its best performance in some time. The BBC Three repeat at 10pm added a further 850,000 viewers giving the episode an impressive combined figure of 10.5 million viewers. At 8.30pm on BBC One was Panorama which had 2.7 million viewers. BBC Two at 8pm had 3 million viewers for University Challenge and held steady with 3 million for Masterchef: The Professionals. ITV1 at 8pm saw 3.7 million viewers tune in for Wild Britain with Ray Mears while the second Coronation Street of the night dipped to 8.7 million viewers afterwards. The Real Vikings: A Time Team Special on Channel Four at 8pm was seen by 1.7 million viewers.

 At 9pm ITV1 once again managed to narrowly beat BBC One’s drama offering though it wasn’t all good news for the commercial broadcaster. Dark crime drama Whitechapel, starring Rupert Penry-Jones, returned at 9pm for a second three-part series on ITV1. However, while its 5.4 million viewers meant it was ahead of Spooks over on BBC One the figure was down nearly 3 million viewers on last year’s opener. Whitechapel in 2009 – the highest rated new drama for ITV that year – had 8.1 million viewers in overnight ratings and 9.2 million viewers as a final figure. So while the return did manage to rank higher than Spooks it still managed to lose a large chunk of its audience. Spooks at 9pm on BBC One had 5.2 million viewers – holding steady more or less across the weeks. BBC Two at 9pm had Horizon: What Happened Before the Big Bang which delved into the different theories surrounding the creation of our universe and whether there was a previous one beforehand – and also whether there are multiple universes not just a singular one. The edition of the science series pulled in 1.6 million for BBC Two at 9pm. Channel Four’s continuing series Titanic: The Mission was slightly behind Horizon with 1.2 million viewers.

Channel Five’s best rating for Monday evening was for Rory and Paddy’s Even Greater British Adventure at 9pm with 1.3 million viewers while The Gadget Show at 8pm had 1.1 million viewers. Australian soaps also performed well for Channel Five with Neighbours, at 5.30pm, pulling in 1.1 million and Home and Away at 6pm with 900,000 viewers. BBC Four’s A History of Horror with Mark Gatiss had 500,000 viewers at 9pm while sister digital channel BBC Three had 800,000 viewers at the same time for The World’s Strictest Parents.