Fiver off to slow start as Dirt manages only 89,000 viewers

by Darren Davidson Brand Republic 29-Apr-08, 11:10

LONDON - Fiver had a disappointing first night after rebranding from Five Life with peak-time offering 'Dirt' pulling in just 89,000, according to unofficial overnight figures.

The first episode of the second series of the US import, which stars former 'Friends' star Courtney Cox as the editor of a trashy tabloid magazine, was watched by a 0.3% share of the multichannel audience at 9pm-10pm. The ratings are down by 83% on the figures from the first series' launch episode.

Fiver, which was formerly known as Five Life, relaunched yesterday as Fiver in an attempt to attract younger viewers.

Fiver's biggest success among its slew of new shows was 'Celebrity Rehab', with a modest 170,000 viewers and a 0.9% share at 10pm-11pm.

Earlier in the evening, another celebrity-orientated show entitled 'Glamour's Best Dressed List 2008', drew 66,000 viewers and a 0.2% share at 8pm-9pm.

Fiver's largest audiences of the day were won by its top-rated show Australian import 'Home and Away'. The soap pulled in 732,000 viewers and a 3.9% share at 6.30pm, with 434,000 and 2.1% had for the second instalment at 7pm.

On the terrestrial channels, Channel 4 brought 2.6m viewers and an 11% share of the total audience at 9pm-10pm for the first episode of a four-part documentary series entitled 'Embarrassing Bodies'. Including Channel 4+1, the programme earned 3m viewers and a 12.5% share.

ITV1's 'Real Crime: Murder at Harvey Nicks', the story of Clare Bernal's 2005 murder by her stalker ex-boyfriend, netted 3.5m viewers and a 14.6% share.

But BBC One's crime drama 'Waking the Dead', won the 9pm-10pm slot with 6.8m viewers and a 28.5% share.

Comments

Natalie Andrews - 29/04/2008

Dirt was badly publicised. I used to watch it last season, but never saw any advertising to say that it was returning, let alone when. Badly done by the marketing team.

Anna Frost - 29/04/2008

As a Freeview viewer I also think Fiver's position on the EPG is a disadvantage - way past the terrestrial channels and following all the shopping channels. Viewers are likely to find something they want on the other spin-off channels before they reach it.