Robert Peston’s new politics show on ITV attracted just 166,000 viewers on Sunday, a tenth of the 1.6 million who watched Andrew Marr on BBC1.
A guest lineup including the chancellor, George Osborne, and broadcaster Louis Theroux did not keep viewers indoors on the hottest day of the year. The programme was scheduled immediately after its BBC rival, from 10am, during which it also performed worse than BBC1’s than Big Questions, which attracted more than 700,000 viewers for an hour-long special on the legacy of the British Empire.
The chance to front his own show was one of the deciding factors in Peston’s move from BBC business editor to become ITV’s political editor last year.
Reviewers have welcomed a more relaxed approach than its BBC rival, with guests including Osborne appearing without ties and comments from an also-tieless Peston on how nervous he was on the show’s debut.
The programme has also made audience participation central to its attempts to distinguish itself from Marr, with tweets displayed on a TV called Screeny McScreenface in reference to the controversy over the naming of the UK’s new research vessel.
As Mark Lawson presciently wrote in the Guardian on Sunday: “Despite showing promising signs, amid inevitable first-morning nerves, of being lively and likeable, Peston on Sunday risks winning the energy medal but losing the ratings war to the tie-knotted, old technology Marr.”
However, the slow start may not faze Peston, who said last week that he was “not obsessed” with ratings.
