Latest Ratings

A rare event last night, Coronation Street was not the highest rating programme

The return of David Jason's mardy detective in A Touch of Frost attracted more than 9 million viewers to ITV1 last night.
The programme was watched by 9.5 million viewers and attracted a 40% share over two hours from 9pm, according to unofficial overnights.

The Jason drama overshadowed the launch of the second half of the BBC1 natural history epic Planet Earth, which drew 6 million viewers and a 24% share between 9pm and 10pm.

ITV1's strong Sunday performance was also down to Coronation Street, which pulled in 9.4 million viewers and a 40% share at 7.30pm, and Heartbeat, which clocked up 9 million and a 36% share in the 8pm hour.

The ITV1 Sunday night juggernaut meant Alan Titchmarsh's new BBC1 series The Great British Summer was also overshadowed, attracting just 4 million viewers and a 16% share against Heartbeat from 8pm.

Channel 4's repeat screening of the first Lord of the Rings movie, The Fellowship of the Ring, drew 2.3 million viewers and a 10% share across three hours and 15 minutes from 8pm. BBC2's Best of Top Gear, delayed after the accident featuring presenter Richard Hammond, had 2.5 million viewers and a 10% share at 8pm.

Channel Five's biggest draw of the day was an early evening screening of the 1971 movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, which attracted 1.8 million viewers and a share of 8%.

This puts A Touch of Frost straight in as 12th highest rating programme on the year* (* highest rating episode of each show used only)

ITV really are the kings of Sunday night TV. BBC1 really struggles to fight back. Although, 6 million for Planet Earth is pretty good for that timeslot.

Good for the slot, but Planet Earth was getting double that back in the Spring. Not sure what night that was though.


If the BBC have the sense to axe the Sunday edition of the 10pm news when Panorama goes it will give them much greater flexibility in the 9pm slot, rather than being restricted to hour-long dramas or splitting up longer films/dramas for the news.

Planet Earth debuted with 8.7 million in March. It's second episode attracted 8 million and the third got 8.3 million. The fourth got 8.6 million and the final episode of the first half of the series got 8.8 million.

Not exactly double but it did get higher than last night. All those figures are overnights to fairly compare, so official figures were obviously higher.

I'm surprised by Frost's figures - I'm not a big fan but it always pulls in the viewers.

Well it's Sir David Jason... whenever he appears in a programme these days, its almost guarenteed it will get a high audience-- such is the viewing public's affection for him (and rightly so).

Personally I always preferred Frost to Morse, I just think Frost had more character and humour about him-- I could never warm to Morse

I can't believe it beat Coro though. I know there are people on this forum who dislike Heartbeat , but only got just below the viewing figures for Coro!

Isn't it funny how I knew 100% that a post entitled "Sunday Ratings" posted by Andrew meant that there was an ITV victory...

i can't say i've watched anything on itv in ages - frost must have been the first in about six months. it was a good episode though - hope they keep making more.

I don't watch ITV that much either becuase I'm mainly against it but I'm not surprised that Coronation Street would be up there.

I watched Planet Earth however on BBC1 and I loved it. But the only parts I disliked where when the polar bear died of starvation and the baby penguin being trampled to death but that's nature.

why would anyone be "against" a television channel?

Yes, it's hardly like the death sentence or racism - it's a TV channel.

Last night's soap ratings

Coronation Street (7.30pm) - 11.1m, 49%
Coronation Street (8.30pm) - 10.2m, 42%
EastEnders (8.00pm) - 9.2m, 39%
Emmerdale (7.00pm) - 8.6m, 41%

Corrie has managed to beat 11m again, and Emmerdale is also doing well, just 0.6m below EastEnders and with a higher audience share

Yes well done ITV!