Ratings Rundown

Here's the rundown of the Top 20 most popular UK TV programmes or series for the week ending Sunday 12th April 2009 collated from information compiled and presented by BARB. Note that figures for multi-episode TV broadcasts (ie soaps or other shows with more than one episode per week) are rounded up into an average figure for the series and are denoted in the chart by * News broadcasts are excluded from the figures.


1) Britain's Got Talent (ITV1)...............11.21
2) Dr Who: Planet of the Dead (BBC1)..........9.54
3) EastEnders (BBC1)..........................8.72 *
4) Coronation Street (ITV1)...................8.64 *
5) The Apprentice (BBC1)......................8.04
6) Lewis (ITV1)...............................6.61
7) Casualty (BBC1)............................6.51
8) Emmerdale (ITV1)...........................6.47 *
9) UEFA Champions League Football (ITV1)......6.30
10) Law And Order:UK (ITV1)....................6.02
11) Robin Hood (BBC1)..........................5.85
12) Holby City (BBC1)..........................5.48
13) My Family (BBC1)...........................4.93
14) The Bill (ITV1)............................4.88 *
15) Countryfile (BBC1).........................4.71
16) Waterloo Road (BBC1).......................4.51
17) Antiques Roadshow (BBC1)...................4.50
18) The One Show (BBC1)........................4.47 *
19) Traffic Cops (BBC1)........................4.42
20) All The Small Things (BBC1)................4.28

Chart Commentary: The easter weekend chart sees the inevitable triumph of the latest series of the ghastly Simon C*w*ll 'talent' vehicle but, more importantly, a massive rating for the Dr Who special 'Planet of the Dead'. The episode improved on its overnight figure by well over a million, narrowing the gap between BGT which, according the Press reports the day after "trounced" Dr Who (even though the two weren't opposite one another). These final figures - the ones the Press won't report because they're still screaming hysterically about the non-existant 'Boylemania' they've manufactured - tell a much more satisfying story. They also tell a slightly skewed one when it comes to the soap figures. One or two episodes of Coronation Street and EastEnders scored, individually, more than Dr Who but their average figure - the one reported here - was dragged down by some lower-rated ones, particularly a poorly-advertised Easter Sunday episode of Coronation Street which rated well under 6 million and thus drags its average and chart position right down. Maybe that'll learn ITV for lazily scheduling a ratings banker and not telling anyone.

Elsewhere we see that Primeval, flattened by Dr Who, slips right out of the Top 20 and Robin Hood put up a decent fight against the monsters of Cowell and co and rallied from the previous week. Oddly ther situation is reversed this most recent weekend (to be reported next week) where Robin's figures collapsed and Primeval's rallied. A good figure for the last Law and Order episode and steady numbers for other BBC dramas such as Waterloo Road and All The Small Things present a satisfyingly drama-heavy Top 20.

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