BBC2 scored a rare double-whammy over ITV in the primetime ratings battle on Tuesday evening as shows about puppies and Richard Branson’s paradise island beat back the commercial broadcaster’s gardens and British “wonders”.
BBC 2’s hour-long Six Puppies and Us from 8pm, about dog lovers and their mutts during the first few years of ownership, collared an average of 2.7 million viewers and a 12.5% audience share.
Over on ITV, which was admittedly offering a lightweight evening line-up after Monday’s Broadchurch bonanza, 2.4 million viewers tuned in to watch the debut episode of Britain’s Best Back Gardens, featuring Alan Titchmarsh’s top 30 plots from up and down the country.
Billed as a result of a year of research of UK gardens for Titchmarsh, the show could only dig up an 11.2% share.
Then from 9pm BBC2 followed up its canine success with Billionaire’s Paradise: Inside Necker Island which transported an average of 2.8 million viewers to the Branson-owned slice of Caribbean life and gave a behind-the-scenes look at the exclusive holiday destination for a 12.5% share.
ITV’s debut of five part series The Wonder of Britain, which sees Julia Bradbury visiting some of the nation’s “greatest buildings”, managed only 1.7 million eyeballs for a 7.6% share in the same time slot.
The 9pm slot was won by the launch of the 18th series of Silent Witness, which attracted 6.7 million viewers and a 29.5% share for the return of the longrunning police procedural starring Emilia Fox and David Caves.
Over on Channel4 at 9pm, returning documentary series 24 Hours In Police Custody appealed to 1.5 million viewers, giving it a 6.7% share.
(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)
The 100 x E4 = 1m
The return of post-Apocalyptic drama The 100 to E4 garnered just north of 1 million viewers and a 4.8% audience share in its 9pm slot.
The US show returned for its second series, which details the trials and tribulations of 100 juvenile prisoners exiled from their dying ‘ark’ in space and sent back to Earth to explore the planet’s surface.
The 100’s return on E4 was in line with what the first series average per episode of 1.1 m and its 4.8% audience share.
The second series start also outperformed Channel 5 at 9pm with its Worst Weather Ever?, a trip around the world of extreme weather events, including footage of a teacher watching as a tsunami turned his home in Japan into driftwood. The weather horror show washed up 781,000 viewers for a 3.5% market share.
The 100 also easily surpassed ITV2’s Blue Go Mad In Ibiza which saw 407,000 tune in to see how the boy band’s efforts to run a beach bar on the Balearic island unaware that actors are sent to create mischief and chaos unfolded. The band-in-jeopardy grabbed a 1.8% share on Wednesday.
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