Reality TV helps ratings to highest in decade
Reality TV helps ratings to highest in decade
Tuesday, 17, Nov 2009 01:04
By Lewis Bazley.
The popularity of reality television series saw Sunday's ratings reach their highest level since January 2000.
A peak of 15.2 million watched Jamie Archer voted off the results show of The X Factor while the returns of Top Gear, I'm A Celebrity. Get Me Out of Here! and Doctor Who saw the total audience between 18:00 and 22:30 GMT boosted to 27.2 million.
Sunday would have seen the highest ratings of the decade, were it not for the 27.7 total audience for Coronation Street, Ground Force, Heartbeat and Jonathan Creek in January 2000.
Half of all television viewers watching between 20:45 and 21:00 GMT on Sunday evening saw Archer's exit from The X Factor, while nearly ten million viewers remained on ITV1 to see the latest batch of celebrities dropped into the I'm A Celebrity. jungle.
"We're delighted that so many viewers enjoyed a great weekend of television on ITV1 - after a fantastic week in which new drama Collision outperformed every other channel at 21:00," said a spokesman for the broadcaster.
"The X Factor continues to go from strength to strength, and I'm A Celebrity... made a terrific start to the ninth series with the best launch ratings since 2004."
The latest Doctor Who special, The Waters of Mars, gained a 34 per cent share of all TV viewing between 19:00 and 20:00 GMT on Sunday while, on Saturday, Strictly Come Dancing gained its best ever ratings, with almost 11 million viewers despite the absence of an ill Bruce Forsyth.