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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Jason Deans

BBC1 fails to whip up a storm with Wild Weather launch

Richard Hammond
Wild Weather with Richard Hammond was watched by an average of 2.8 million on BBC1 on Monday night. Photograph: Anna Williams/BBC/Oxford Scientific Films/Anna Williams

Wild Weather with Richard Hammond launched on BBC1 with just under 3 million viewers on Monday night.

The tornado-chasing three-part documentary series kicked off with an average of 2.8 million viewers and a 12% audience share from 9pm – underwhelming figures for that BBC1 slot.

However, this and 9pm documentaries on BBC2 and Channel 4 struggled against ITV’s I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!, which rumbled on 8.8 million and 36.8% – once again the most popular show of the day across UK TV.

BBC2’s Posh People: Inside Tatler averaged 1.3 million and 5.4% from 9pm, while Channel 4’s Skint had 1.2 million and 5.1%. Channel 5’s 9pm show, US drama import Gotham, averaged 1.2 million and 5%.

Dead popular

The Walking Dead – one of the biggest shows on US TV – went into its series five mid-season break on UK cable and satellite channel Fox with an average of 453,000 viewers and a 1.9% share from 9pm.

This made it the second most popular show on pay-TV channels on Monday, behind Sky1’s Modern Family (8pm: 475,000/2.1%) and ahead of Sky Living’s Criminal Minds (9pm: 363,000/1.5%).

The biggest free-to-air show outside the five main channels was ITV2’s I’m a Celebrity spin-off Get Me Out of Here Now! (10pm: 961,000/6%), followed by E4’s Hollyoaks (7pm: 916,000/4.6%).

BBC4’s popular three-part documentary series Dancing Cheek to Cheek: an Intimate History of Dance, presented by Len Goodman and Lucy Worsley, concluded strongly, averaging 628,000 and a 2.7% share from 9pm.

All ratings are Barb overnight figures, including live, +1 (except for BBC channels) and same day timeshifted (recorded) viewing, but excluding on demand, or other – unless otherwise stated. Figures for BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 generally include ratings for their HD simulcast services, unless otherwise stated

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