River Cottage return brings 2.8m viewers to Channel 4

by Daniel Farey-Jones Brand Republic 09-Nov-07, 11:00

LONDON - The return of the Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's 'River Cottage' series won Channel 4 2.8m viewers and an 11.5% share at 8pm-9pm last night, according to unofficial viewing figures.

The new three-part series 'River Cottage: Gone Fishing' sees presenter Fearnley-Whittingstall leave his home to find his food by fishing around the country.

Five's three back-to-back Uefa cup ties earned it around 9% of the audience between 3.45pm and 10pm, but its new US series 'Californation' starring David Duchovny as a troubled writer continues to languish despite critical praise. Last night's episode only managed a 4.8% share, with 715,000 viewers.

The 9pm battle between BBC One and ITV1 was decisively won for the former by new Jimmy McGovern six-part drama series 'The Street', which was watched by 5.7m and earned 26% share.

ITV1 pulled in 2.8m viewers and a 12.7% share with a genetics documentary that showed celebrities including John Barnes and Toby Anstis finding out their chances of developing a range of afflictions including heart disease and Alzheimer's.

Comments

Jeremy Lee - 09/11/2007

Brilliant - love River Cottage. Five really needs to sort its acquisition or marketing strategy out. Never heard of Californication but it's probably fair to say its rubbish.

Gordon Macmillan - 09/11/2007

Californication is great (Duchovny - sleeps with women, writes a bit - very smart and funny), but better than that it is followed by Network 30 (comedy show about writers on a US sketch show (sort of like Studio 60 on the Sunset strip, but funnier). both are well worth catching/Sky+ it.

Jeremy Lee - 09/11/2007

Ahhh, sounds like they really do need to shout louder about these programmes otherwise they just got lost in the ether. Five needs to do some customer acquisition work - I'm still not sure what it stands for.what its point is. Anyway, given your recommendation I'll give them a go. But they still won't beat H F-W