It was the most anticipated drama return of the year, but Broadchurch could not stop ITV slumping to its worst January ratings on record.
The main ITV channel had just a 14.4% share of the audience across the whole of the month, hit by a string of prime-time weekend flops including Get Your Act Together, Planet’s Got Talent and Harry Hill’s reboot of Stars in Their Eyes.
Broadchurch, starring David Tennant and Olivia Colman, failed to reprise either the critical acclaim or audiences of its first series and another big ITV drama, Mr Selfridge, has also seen viewers drift away.
ITV’s woes have been compounded by a run of poorly rating factual shows, including The Wonder of Britain, the first ITV series fronted by former Countryfile presenter Julia Bradbury, which was pulled last month after two episodes.
It is ITV’s lowest January share of the audience since at least the turn of the century and, given the fragmentation of viewing over the last 20 years, likely to be an all-time low.
ITV’s share of viewing across its portfolio of channels was also its lowest since at least 2002.
Its share including ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4 and its recently launched sister networks, entertainment and lifestyle channel ITVBe and premium drama channel, ITV Encore, had a combined 20.5% share of viewing in January, according to figures seen by MediaGuardian.
BBC1 had a 23.1% share in January, giving it an 8.6% lead over ITV’s main channel. It is BBC1’s biggest advantage over ITV outside of the exceptional summer months of the London Olympics in 2012 when ITV dropped to its lowest ever share of 11.3% for the main channel (and 17.3% for its portfolio).
The share for ITV’s main channel dropped below 10% on six days in January, including all five Saturdays and one Sunday (25 January), with its lowest all-day share of 7.9% on Saturday 17 January.
ITV has found itself up against a strong weekend peacetime performance by BBC1, bolstered by the return of a rejuvenated The Voice on Saturday and a trio of big rating BBC1 shows on Sunday: Countryfile, Antiques Roadshow and Call The Midwife.
ITV has struggled to fill the void left by Dancing on Ice, which aired for the last time on the channel this time last year and regularly pulled in audiences of more than 6 million viewers.
But its new weekend lineup, including Harry Hill’s reboot of Stars in their Eyes, Stephen Mulhern talent show Get Your Act Together and another new format, Planet’s Got Talent, have been rating at little more than 2 million viewers.
ITV had looked to an expensively acquired Israeli talent format, Rising Star, to air on Saturday nights but the show was dropped before it had even aired after poor ratings in the US and Germany.
Broadchurch started strongly for the channel on Monday nights but has failed to repeat the success of its first series, while the third run of Mr Selfridge, starring Jeremy Piven, launched with fewer than 6 million viewers against more than 9 million for its first run. Sitcom Birds of a Feather has also seen a big crop in audience.
Elsewhere, the first three weeks of the new daytime show fronted by Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins averaged fewer than a million viewers, failing to repeat the ratings magic of their BBC1 show, The Great British Bake Off.
Many of ITV’s factual programmes have struggled at 9pm, including The Wonder of Britain and Bring Back Borstal.
Tuesday night’s documentary at 9pm on ITV, Young War Widows, about three women whose husbands died in Afghanistan, had 1.1 million viewers – a 5.2% share.
Although such a topic was never likely to attract a huge audience, it was ranked seventh behind the other main channels as well as ITV3 and BT Sport’s coverage of Liverpool’s 3-2 Premier League win over Tottenham, which had 1.3 million viewers (6.3%).
Broadchurch and Mr Selfridge remain two of the channel’s biggest shows. Broadchurch’s consolidated audience, including people who record it and watch it in the subsequent seven days, has been around 9 million, with Mr Selfridge watched by a consolidated audience of around 5.5 million.
ITV declined to comment.
