Robert Peston’s coup of landing David Cameron as a guest failed to boost ratings as his new Sunday morning ITV show saw its audience fall by almost a quarter.
The third outing of Peston on Sunday pulled in an audience of 230,000 viewers and a 3.8% share of TV viewing from 10am on Sunday.
This is well down on the 302,000 who tuned in the previous week, but up on the 166,000 who watched the new current affairs show’s debut.
Viewing was hit by the return of Nicky Campbell’s BBC1 show Big Questions, which did not air the previous week, which drew 700,000 viewers.
The ITV News political editor tweeted about the “packed” guest lineup for Sunday, in particular landing Cameron.
.@david_cameron here, in make up with @lilyallen, and both tieless! ITV at 10am https://t.co/9aOkPV5hj5
— Robert Peston (@Peston) May 22, 2016
In an interview last week, Vicky Flind, who left BBC1’s This Week to launch Peston on Sunday, said that ITV News is “realistic” about the timescale for building the popularity of the show.
“Of course we want to build on the viewers and I think we can,” she said, speaking to Broadcast magazine. “We’ve got to be realistic and patient.”
BBC1 won the 10am slot with Nicky Campbell’s talk show The Big Questions, which didn’t air last week, which drew an average of 700,000 viewers and an 11.7% share of total TV viewing.
BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show, which airs an hour earlier than Peston, was watched by 1.2 million viewers attracting a 19.4% share of total TV viewing between 9am and 10am.
