This somes it all up, do things on the cheap. We know the money is there, but no-one wants to spend it. Why not cut back on these talent shows and salaries? Regular people have had to take pay cuts.

To be fair its the writer who is letting them down. There is a story to tell and if they had done the courtrom scenes properly and concentrated on the characters we know and how they react to the trial, how they give evidence etc it could have worked. But we are now concentrating on characters we dont even know and their backstory and they are uninteresting IMO.

Broadchurch was also following a highly rated episode of Coronation Street. That makes the Silent Witness rating even more impressive. I really thought Broadchurch would have been ahead in these clashes.

I haven't seen any of this series yet, is it worth bothering?

I watched them last night on ITV Player. I wasn't particularly in the mood after last night's news but I have to say that they were superb. The second episode in particular was probably the best I've seen in the last year from Corrie. Great drama and tension and the sub-plot of Steve's depression amongst the carnage was brilliantly done.

I honestly thought then (and still do) that airing SW was just a spoiler tactic but evenso that BC would still clearly run away in a head-to-head given it was critically acclaimed, had huge ratings and that it's been 2 years since the last series. I'm genuinely surprised that almost half-way into it's run it's losing in the overnights.

I may have missed it but how did last Monday's airing of SW vs BC compare in the consolidated figures? I guess we get those figures today?

We should get those around lunchtime.

And managing declining share instead of growing it is why TV is in a mess sometimes. How long were they thinking 4m on Wednesday at 8pm was decent until Bake Off came along and massively increased ratings for that slot?

Thanks Dancc. Will be interesting to see those!

CBB still strong despite its fall against Silent Witness and Broadchurch, and 230,000 up on the Monday before.

That's a great rating for Silent Witness and it was a great victory for them! It paid off! Broadchurch did fall but still logged in a good rating!

An increasingly important part of the puzzle, there could be some mighty timeshifts to be added on.

Still, hard to see how either the BBC or ITV will be that thrilled with how either show is doing in the overnights now. Silent Witness would be over 7m away from BC, whilst the latter is harder to assess given we don't know how many have tuned out because of the change of direction.

As others have mentioned, it was the least eventful episode of the series.

If even the quietest episode can do 2.6 against the biggest competition of the week, there's no reason to think CBB's strong form can't continue.

Would it? It didn't get that for it's first episode which aired on a Tuesday. It got 6.5m iirc.

Also remember that Broadchurch was ahead of Silent Witness in the overnights last week.

Last Monday:
Broadchurch - 6.13m
Silent Witness - 5.49m

Exactly.

Still enjoyable but logic has taken a bit of a holiday.

Personally think that these points worked against BC, rather than in its favour. There was too much of a gap from the first series, and many watchers may be like me and wonder who all these people are. Also like me, many may think that the setting of the story is just weak, and it shouldn't have linked the two stories.

Who knows, it still will consolidate strongly and may pick up ratings wise.

Always worth watching TV for yourself to form your own opinions about it rather than just following someone else's

Terrific stuff for Corrie, not so far behind the 'right to die' episode which was 132x more hyped.

I can't prove it, but seems likely based on all available evidence.

It saddens me that the BBC probably cares more these days that it beat Broadchurch than maximising the Silent Witness audience. And yes I know it might recover with timeshift but that's hardly the point.

I think people thought The Musketeers on a Friday was a burn off, well Jake Lyle did and I think he was right. Most thought Silent Witness v Broadchurch was a clash that would dent both but BC would win in overnights.

That theory has been blown out of the water!

Agreed. I think timeshifts could be pretty substantial. For other dramas those overnights would be very good, even if they weren't head to head. Problem is that both shows (especially BC) are considered big, hence the overnights look a little underwhelming (especially for BC). I think BC would probably have done 6.5-7m last night without SW in the way. The change of direction has probably put some viewers off (as you'd expect) but it's still pretty strong (I can't think of any other weekday drama that would do 5.7m against SW).


It got 6.7m. And Mondays generally rate higher than Tuesdays. I don't think 7m is too much of a stretch of the imagination.

Corrie was exellent! Alot of people enjoyed over on forum too. Dont you always bang on about eastenders? No wonder you didnt enjoy it

Bad start for Mel & Sue's second week: 770,000.

From the Mail on SUnday - 10 reasons why Broadchurch has lost the plot

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz...ly-flawed.html

Do you have anymore daytime ratings? Thanks.