The first episode of The Great Pottery Throw Down is airing at 9pm on Tuesday – the latest in a string of BBC programmes focusing on Britons’ favourite hobbies.
It follows in the wake of the BBC’s Great British Bake Off, The Great British Garden Revival and The Great Interior Design Challenge, as well as the more plainly named The Big Allotment Challenge.
While some of those forebears have had stunning success in the ratings, others have been more disappointing. So will the pottery show follow in the footsteps of The Great British Bake Off, or will it be closer to the Big Allotment Challenge?
The first series of The Great British Bake Off, which aired on BBC2 in 2010, had average viewing figures of 2.5 million. By this year, that had increased to an average 12 million, with 13.4 million people watching Nadiya Hussain win the 2015 final. The programme is being remade for US audiences and has been called a “phenomenon that is still on the rise” by the controller of BBC1, Charlotte Moore.
The Great British Sewing Bee had a similar start to its baking counterpart, with an opening audience of 2.6 million in April 2013. The show, which is hosted by Claudia Winkleman, has run for two more series, with this year’s show continuing to attract more than 2 million viewers.
In contrast, viewers’ interest in The Big Allotment Challenge appears to have withered somewhat. It started respectably with 2.5 million viewers, but the first season’s average was only 1.9 million and the second failed to blossom into a ratings success.
