TV Ratings 2024

[lolly]

I find it interesting looking at EastEnders particularly, just because it has had something of a small resurgence and a huge storyline recently, whereas the other two still seem to be in relatively gentle decline.

But even EastEnders resurgence sees it only narrowly above where it was this time last year, and back to where it was a few months before the Christmas peak. And that's off the back of what was its biggest, most hyped storyline in years, which was pretty much universally applauded, from what I saw. I assumed that EastEnders would run with that and be seeing off Emmerdale now - but it hasn't. I still think it may yet do it, but it'll be due to people stopping watching Emmerdale rather than EastEnders picking up a new audience.

Like Slave says, I don't think the soaps are competitive in any real sense. I think we've just worked down to a relatively low fanbase who watch out of habit rather than anything else on the whole. Seeing how the audience slumps when an episode of any of them is shunted around the schedule for football or whatever only underlines that for me. Regardless of how easy it is to catch up with that episode, a significant chunk of people just can't be bothered.

 

[lolly]

March 18 - 24

01 Death In Paradise 7.465m
02 Beyond Paradise 6.164m
03 The Apprentice 5.538m
04 Gladiators 5.268m
05 Antiques Roadshow 4.946m
06 Coronation Street 4.431m
07 The 1% Club 4.423m
08 Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway 4.406m
09 Countryfile 3.956m
10 Emmerdale 3.883m
11 International Friendly Football: England vs Brazil 3.878m
12 Dragons' Den 3.695m
13 Passenger 3.675m
14 EastEnders 3.596m
15 BBC News At Six 3.576m
16 Gogglebox 3.317m
17 Coma 3.166m
18 BBC Weekend News 3.149m
19 Sort Your Life Out 3.112m
20 The Great Celebrity Bake Off For SU2C 2.919m

 

[lolly]

No episodes of Celebrity Big Brother made the top 50 shows, including the final. Which means it must have had fewer than 2.575m viewers. The final wasn't even the biggest show of the week - that was the Wednesday episode. I'd estimate around 2.2m on average.

Channel 5 took advantage by charting with Coma in the same timeslot.

 

[FetchFugly]

A Paradise stranglehold on the top of the ratings.

This week's Channel 5 drama with viewers right in line with Love Rat. I did consider giving Coma a go but like @lolly I have been burned before.

 

[lolly]

Nice to see Gladiators tick over 5m again, but that still leaves the two semi finals as the lowest watched shows of the run. I'll be interesting to see how well the final does, at it did get a fair bit of promo.

 

[lolly]

March 25 - 31

01 The Apprentice 6.006m
02 Beyond Paradise 5.651m
03 Gladiators 5.390m
04 Mammals 4.953m
05 The 1% Club 4.927m
06 Coronation Street 4.478m
07 Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway 4.348m
08 Antiques Roadshow 4.198m
09 Dragons' Den 3.948m
10 Emmerdale 3.932m
11 International Friendly Football: England vs Belgium 3.600m
12 BBC News at Six 3.582m
13 EastEnders 3.520m
14 Professor T 3.451m
15 Gogglebox 3.427m
16 This Town 3.293m
17 Sort Your Life Out 3.046m
18 Michael McIntyre's Big Show 2.989m
19 The Chase 2.970m
20 Countryfile 2.878m

 

[lolly]

That's the lowest EastEnders week since mid September. Coronation Street hasn't had lead of a million over it for several months, but it's getting closer again.

 

[Ellie]

I honestly can’t believe that The Apprentice is still so popular. It’s unwatchable these days.

 

[Slave]

That's the lowest EastEnders week since mid September. Coronation Street hasn't had lead of a million over it for several months, but it's getting closer again.

Stolen from DS:

March 2024 Barb Averages:

Corrie - 4.41m (down 390k yoy)
Emmerdale - 3.9m (down 300k yoy)
EastEnders - 3.59m (level yoy)


2024 Barb Averages (Jan-Mar)

Corrie - 4.48m (down 450k yoy)
Emmerdale - 4.06m (down 270k yoy)
EastEnders - 3.76m (level you)

There's naturally a lot of focus on Coronation Street's decline, but the inability of EastEnders to capitalise on what ITV has lost remains just as troubling.

 

[lolly]

It's the fact that EastEnders then pretty much slowly trended up through the rest of the year to that big climax at Christmas, but has now lost it all again - and apparently still slowly falling which is a concern, I'd say. It clearly built real momentum, but has seemingly entirely lost it.

 

[Rita]

Am I right in saying that Corrie now has roughly a quarter more total viewers than Eastenders? They are now getting so few viewers that Corrie is getting a quarter more total viewing figures than Eastenders which is rather UNFATHOMABLE.

Also I keep hearing Corrie is dropping viewing figures massively year on year and Eastenders is stabilising yet Eastenders never seems to catch up other than the Christmas episode?

Eastenders is FAR BETTER in my opinion and deserves to top Corrie’s woeful current output.

 

[lolly]

I posted either earlier in this thread or elsewhere about the gap between Corrie and EE. Up until about a year ago, Corrie was almost always over a million ahead. Then in the latter half of last year, EastEnders frequently reduced that to under a million, even close to half a million. But now the lead appears to be opening up again. This week was the closest to a million it's been for a few months at least.

 

[lolly]

I honestly can’t believe that The Apprentice is still so popular. It’s unwatchable these days.

It is watchably unwatchable, though.

 

[Rita]

I posted either earlier in this thread or elsewhere about the gap between Corrie and EE. Up until about a year ago, Corrie was almost always over a million ahead. Then in the latter half of last year, EastEnders frequently reduced that to under a million, even close to half a million. But now the lead appears to be opening up again. This week was the closest to a million it's been for a few months at least.

That makes sense as the Christmas episode was really high profile but the fact that it has tailed off again isn’t great. Unfortunately if that didn’t work I can’t see it ever working out but as has been said before I think they are all clearly on their way out. I just find it a shame that Corrie is still quite a chunk ahead when it has been terrible for a good while now and Eastenders has been pretty consistently great for the same period.

 

[Slave]

I just find it a shame that Corrie is still quite a chunk ahead when it has been terrible for a good while now and Eastenders has been pretty consistently great for the same period.

I genuinely find it quite baffling that Coronation Street still rates comparatively high, but it must show that the vast majority of the audiences all three currently attract are totally ingrained in their viewing habits. At best, EastEnders could probably expect to draw level with Emmerdale in the next year and Coronation Street in two years if the current trends continue. But it's a faint achievement when the only way it seems they're going to do it is by waiting for viewing figures to sink to their level.

 

[lolly]

EastEnders was ahead of the curve in terms of losing an audience - it fell before the other two and then levelled out before climbing last year, and now seemingly falling back.

I think it's quite likely that the other two may follow a similar pattern and level out. I guess it's a question of how low they fall before that happens.

 

[Berly]

is the drop in viewers inline with population deaths?

 

[Rita]

This Morning is also apparently flopping since Holly and Phil have left too. Surely it’s not simply down to those two leaving? Morning Live is apparently the most watched show at that time now.

 

[Rita]

@lolly do you know if Loose Women draws less viewers than This Morning? I believe they do, but am possibly only thinking this due to the fact This Morning had won the Best Daytime category at the NTA’s for quite some time (apart from last year I believe).

 

[lolly]

All I know from this week's ITV top 50 shows is that one episode (Wednesday's) managed to to sneak in at #48 with 0.910m viewers.

 

[Rita]

All I know from this week's ITV top 50 shows is that one episode (Wednesday's) managed to to sneak in at #48 with 0.910m viewers.

Loose Women?

 

[lolly]

Loose Women?

Sorry. No - This Morning. No episodes of Loose Women charted.

 

[Slave]

This Morning is also apparently flopping since Holly and Phil have left too. Surely it’s not simply down to those two leaving? Morning Live is apparently the most watched show at that time now.

I don't watch either, but I think ITV probably missed a trick by not giving This Morning a revamp when Cat Deeley and Ben Shepherd took over. It looks like they've just stepped into the existing set, which is still styled and branded exactly as it was under Phil and Holly. If ever there was a time to quietly draw a line under everything that happened, this was surely it...

 

[PercyPig]

All I know from this week's ITV top 50 shows is that one episode (Wednesday's) managed to to sneak in at #48 with 0.910m viewers.

Thought it would be much more tbh. Makes Stephs Packed Lunch look less of a flop.

 

[Halli]

So good to see Gladiators top 3

 

[lolly]

April 1 - 7

01 The Apprentice 5.897m
02 Beyond Paradise 5.217m
03 The 1% Club 5.116m
04 Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway 4.658m
05 Coronation Street 4.606m
06 Mammals 4.309m
07 Antiques Roadshow 4.093m
08 Emmerdale 4.007m
09 Have I Got News For You 3.727m
10 Dragons' Den 3.677m
11 EastEnders 3.617m
12 Gogglebox 3.511m
13 Masterchef 3.343m
14 Countryfile 3.330m
15 BBC News At Six 3.329m
16 Professor T 3.170m
17 Sort Your Life Out 3.169m
18 Casualty 2.865m
19 Interior Design Masters with Alan Carr 2.764m
20 The Chase Celebrity Special 2.740m

 

[Slave]

Not that there was any doubting the success of The 1% Club but...

ITV has reported that The 1% Club has become the biggest game show on UK television over 2023 and to date with its current series averaging 5.8 million viewers in consolidated figures. The show’s ratings success also makes it ITV’s biggest original game show in a decade.

Hosted by Lee Mack, the show, which last year won the National Television Award for Best Quiz Game Show, has increased year on year.

The show’s success has gone from strength to strength, increasing its audience since its launch two years ago. While Season 1, which launched in 2022, reached an average of 5.3 million, the second season climbed to 5.4 million.

The 1% Club has proved popular Saturday night viewing across all generations. The most recent episode of the latest season, on April 6th, was the most watched programme for 16-34 year olds that evening with 44 per cent of that demographic tuning in – and the overall most watched programme of the night, with a 34 per cent overall share of viewers.

Which just makes me wonder how long it'll be before they try to turn the format into a daytime quiz show.

 

[Berly]

Is Race Across The World not in the chart or will that be next week?

 

[lolly]

Is Race Across The World not in the chart or will that be next week?

It'll be next week.

 

[lolly]

Apparently Race Across The World had 'just over 3m' in the overnights.

For comparison, The Apprentice had 3.4m in the overnights for the chart above. I think it's reasonable to assume RATW will do similarly well on catch up, so hopefully it will end up 5m+.

 

[Berly]

Is that holding up against previous series?

 

[lolly]

Is that holding up against previous series?

The last series (which was the first on BBC1) had 4.730m for its first episode.

I may be a little/very optimistic in hoping that it does as well as The Apprentice on 7 day catch up, as that was the only show in the top 50 last week to get over 2m on it. In fact only two other shows topped a million - Beyond Paradise had 1.690m, and one episode of EastEnders had 1.003m.

 

[Rita]

BGT starts again this weekend. Another show that is on its last legs. I am assuming it may still top the ratings chart but last year, and now this year I just couldn’t give a FUCK.

 

[Slave]

BGT starts again this weekend. Another show that is on its last legs. I am assuming it may still top the ratings chart but last year, and now this year I just couldn’t give a FUCK.

We watched the semis and the final last year, which was quite enough. Anything decent/notable from the auditions gets clipped and shared on social media anyway, so there's little impetus to sit through the entire show anymore.

 

[lolly]

BGT last year, for comparison in a few weeks

Episode	Air date	Total viewers (millions)[14]	ITV Weekly rank[14]
Auditions 1	15 April	7.10	1
Auditions 2	16 April	6.42	2
Auditions 3	22 April	7.32	1
Auditions 4	29 April	6.49	1
Auditions 5	6 May	6.63	5
Auditions 6	14 May	5.70	3
Auditions 7	20 May	5.96	1
Auditions 8	27 May	5.92	1
Semi-Final 1	29 May	5.58	2
Semi-Final 2	30 May	5.38	3
Semi-Final 3	31 May	5.00	5
Semi-Final 4	1 June	4.80	6
Semi-Final 5	2 June	5.04	4
Final	4 June	6.33	1

 

[Raining on Me]

It's hard to imagine it not dropping off again. But if they persist with Dancing on Ice, they'll definitely keep on with BGT given there's nothing to replace it with.

Didn't Corrie regularly used to do some kind of mega stunt week or some nonsense in the BGT finals week? Does that still exist? I assume it's more or less stopped and even if not, has zero impact these days

 

[Rita]

I can’t actually recall if Corrie does a stunt week now? Just shows how much my interest in both shows has waned. The last Corrie stunt week I recall is the Pat Phelan exit and that must have been a few years back now.

 

[Slave]

I can’t actually recall if Corrie does a stunt week now? Just shows how much my interest in both shows has waned. The last Corrie stunt week I recall is the Pat Phelan exit and that must have been a few years back now.

Their "proper" stunt week is still very much a thing and happens in October. Coronation Street sometimes do big episodes for the BGT semi-final week, although last year was pretty low-key.

 

[lolly]

 

[Rita]

The Chase celebrity specials seem to go round on a loop, BUT BBC also have repeats of Pointless Celebrities and I even noticed The Hit List repeats before. JUST MAKE NEW ONES!!