Midsomer Murders outshines Cruise and Spielberg with 6.6m

by Darren Davidson, Brand Republic 28-Jul-08, 11:00

LONDON - Not even the combined pulling power of Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg in BBC One's terrestrial premiere of 'War of the Worlds' was enough to topple ITV1's Midsomer Murders last night, which had 6.6m viewers.

The long-running crime drama, which stars John Nettles as DCI Tom Barnaby, captured a 29.5% share of the audience between 8pm-10pm.

Spielberg's mega-upgrade of the 1953 science-fiction landmark 'War of the Worlds', which was filmed in 2005, was watched by 4.5m viewers and a 19.9% share of the audience between 8pm-9.50pm.

The final episode in the latest series of 'Top Gear' sped away with 5m viewers and a 22.4% share of the audience between 8pm-9pm.

It was followed by the' Long Way Round', a documentary showing the preparation and planning of Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman's famous motorbike journey, which netted 1.9m viewers and an 8.2% share between 9pm-10pm.

Channel 4's documentary 'Queen Camilla', which looked at the inside story of Charles and Camilla's relationship, could only manage a lowly 1.3m viewers and a 5.7% share, including figures from Channel 4+1.

It was followed by the latest instalment of 'Big Brother', with an audience of 2.9m viewers and a 12.9% share between 10pm-11pm, including Channel 4+1 ratings.

Last Friday, Channel 4's new comedy series 'The Kevin Bishop Show', starring the eponymous comedian from its British Comedy Award-winning show 'Star Stories', opened with an encouraging 2.2m viewers and an 11.2% share between 10pm-10.35pm. The audience includes ratings from Channel 4+1.

Comments

JP S - 28/07/2008

Maybe War of the Worlds was a mistake, but the 2009 UA?Dreamworks production of The Omniverse Almanac will be the blockbuster of the year for Cruise and Spielberg. Check it out at www.extramarbles.com