Tuesday, 30 October 2007

Doc Martin goes from strength to strength


ITV1 drama Doc Martin got its second highest audience ever last night with 9.3m (38.4%) watching at 9pm.
The penultimate episode of the third series comfortably broke the 9m mark, holding a largely steady audience throughout the 60 minutes.


Unsurprisingly, the show, starring Martin Clunes, was significantly above the commercial network’s slot average for the year so far of 5.4m (23.1%).

The only time the popular series has gained a higher audience was on 2 September 2004, when 9.4m (42.5%) tuned in.

The current run has averaged an impressive 8.3m (35%) over the six episodes that have aired to date. Since the show began this year on 24 September, its audience has grown from 7.4m (31.4%). Last week it gained an audience of 8.7m (36.4%).

ITV1 comprehensively dominated the 9pm slot last night with BBC1’s hour-long Crimewatch attracting just 3.4m (13.9%). The show held a largely steady audience in the same 9pm slot, but was some way below BBC1’s slot average of 5.7m (24.4%).

Not too far behind BBC1 was its sister channel BBC2, with Dragons’ Den drawing in a strong 3.1m (12.7%) in the same slot.

Both Five and Channel 4 were left trailing at the time. C4’s feature-length documentary When Hell Freezes Over, part of its Endurance season, struggled with 751,000 (3.4%). The 95-minute programme was below its slot average of 1.8m (8.2%).

Five had an even worse time with the final part of Banged Up Abroad averaging just 551,000 (2.3%), also significantly below its slot average of 1.3m (5.6%).

For the second week running, both Five and C4 were outperformed once again by BBC4. The concluding part of its adaptation of the novel Fanny Hill managed to hold on to its audience from last week with 1.1m (5.2% of multichannel homes) watching for an hour at 9pm.

Doc Martin was given a helping hand as Coronation Street’s storyline surrounding the wedding of Sarah Platt and Jason Grimshaw stepped up a gear in preparation for the big day later this week.

The second edition of the soap at 8.30pm, which preceded Doc Martin, gained a sizeable 11.2m (45%) over half an hour. During the first episode at 7.30pm, 11.5m (48.2%) watched.

BBC1’s soap EastEnders also had a strong performance with 10m (40.7%) watching at 8pm.

BBC2’s long-running quiz University Challenge once again performed strongly with 3.3m (13.5%) watching at 8pm, while cookery show Nigella Express made an impression with 2.8m (11.1%) at 8.30pm.

But C4 and Five struggled to make much of an impact. The return of The Gadget Show at 8pm fell short of the million mark with 976,000 (3.9%) for an hour. C4’s Dispatches programme, How to Get Ahead in Africa, had 748,000 (3%).

All hours shares for Monday 29 October 2007: ITV1 – 24.9%, BBC1 – 20.5%, BBC2 – 9.6%, C4 – 7.1%, Five – 4.5%, multichannel – 33.1%.

Peaktime (6pm to 10.30pm) shares: ITV1 – 31.8%, BBC1 – 21.5%, BBC2 – 11.3%, C4 – 5.3%, Five – 3.3%, multichannel – 26.4%.


Source: Broadcast Now

No comments: