Lowest rating in primetime?

[zeebre12]

Just wondering what is the lowest number of viewers each of the main 5 channels had in primetime? What the worst ratings for any of the digital channels?

[Ghost]

I think BBC2 and Channel 4’s lowest primetime ratings were on Xmas 1993, when at some points the viewing figures were so low they were rounded to zero on both channels.

[James Martin]

I think BBC2 and Channel 4’s lowest primetime ratings were on Xmas 1993, when at some points the viewing figures were so low they were rounded to zero on both channels.

Given how much ITV phoned in that day, BBC One must have cleaned right up.

[iloveTV1]

A repeat of Damiola: Our Loved Boy did something like 800K on a Monday night in August 2017. This was on BBC One and I don’t know if anything has gone lower than that.

[Flux]

Just wondering what is the lowest number of viewers each of the main 5 channels had in primetime? What the worst ratings for any of the digital channels?

As an aside to this, I wonder if some digital channels regularly see their worst ratings during primetime since the number of viewers flocking to the "main" channels is usually higher at that time? When Strictly is raking in the millions, for example, does that mean BBC Four and Gold are suffering dips? The digital channels also may purposely not try as hard against big competition, keeping their biggest shows back to a less competitive time, meaning they rate even lower.

[gottago]

Channel 4's Host The Week managed 400k at 9pm and was pulled after one episode. Not sure if anything has managed to rate lower than that though they've certainly come close over the last year. A lot of their Covid docs were utter flops.

I'm sure something on C5 last year only got 180k though it might have been at 10pm.

[tellyblues]

BBC Scotland's The Nine amongst others managed no viewers.

https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/43...-21-shows/

[Steve Williams]

I think BBC2 and Channel 4’s lowest primetime ratings were on Xmas 1993, when at some points the viewing figures were so low they were rounded to zero on both channels.

Hullo. Both channels did indeed get zero ratings on Christmas Day 1993, here is the show that did it on BBC2 - https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/bb...5#at-21.15

I remember reading that in a fascinating feature in Broadcast by the great William Phillips about twenty years ago, which listed all the zero rated programmes there'd even been in primetime on the main channels. They were mostly opera, ballet and foreign films, the only other shows I remember being in it were Tim Allen Rewires America, his stand-up show on C4, and this opera - https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/bb...1#at-21.10

There'll have been loads since.

One other fascinating feature William Phillips did around the same time was the 25 least successful series on primetime BBC1 and ITV since 1982 based on the average audience for their first series. I found it again in 2010 and posted it on DigitalSpy, then found it again a few months ago and tweeted it.

https://twitter.com/SkillageSteve/status...38049?s=19

Of them all, Studio, a drama set in a recording studio, must be the biggest flop, to go under three million at 9pm on ITV in 1983, an era when the test card would have done a few million there.

[AndyB2008]

I think BBC2 and Channel 4’s lowest primetime ratings were on Xmas 1993, when at some points the viewing figures were so low they were rounded to zero on both channels.

Hullo. Both channels did indeed get zero ratings on Christmas Day 1993, here is the show that did it on BBC2 - https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/bb...5#at-21.15

I remember reading that in a fascinating feature in Broadcast by the great William Phillips about twenty years ago, which listed all the zero rated programmes there'd even been in primetime on the main channels. They were mostly opera, ballet and foreign films, the only other shows I remember being in it were Tim Allen Rewires America, his stand-up show on C4, and this opera - https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/bb...1#at-21.10

There'll have been loads since.

One other fascinating feature William Phillips did around the same time was the 25 least successful series on primetime BBC1 and ITV since 1982 based on the average audience for their first series. I found it again in 2010 and posted it on DigitalSpy, then found it again a few months ago and tweeted it.

https://twitter.com/SkillageSteve/status...38049?s=19

Of them all, Studio, a drama set in a recording studio, must be the biggest flop, to go under three million at 9pm on ITV in 1983, an era when the test card would have done a few million there.

Didn't the Keith Allen drama Jack of Hearts get a low rating on BBC1 as well when it launched with less than 2m?

Annie's Bar on Channel 4 rated less than a million too in primetime, couldn't make the C4 Top 30 and embarrassingly was beaten by The Girlie Show. This despite Prince Edward behind it.

[Steve Williams]

Didn't the Keith Allen drama Jack of Hearts get a low rating on BBC1 as well when it launched with less than 2m?

It wasn't the first episode of Jack of Hearts but one of the later episodes was, for a while, the lowest rated primetime drama in BBC1 history, as it was part of Black Wednesday - the night in September 1999 when BBC1 was beaten by Channel 5 who had an England match. Can't remember what the figure was, but it was beaten in 2009 by one of the final episodes of Robin Hood which was up against the SuBo Britain's Got Talent final.

I think the smallest audience on primetime ITV was a nondescript doc on the night of the 2012 Paralympics opening ceremony, which got just over 600k I think.

[James Martin]

According to "Cobbles" on TV Forum, Make Me Famous did just 840k on 25/06/2020, at 21:00 on BBC One.

Source (Google Cache, for obvious reasons)

[Steve Williams]

As an aside to this, I wonder if some digital channels regularly see their worst ratings during primetime since the number of viewers flocking to the "main" channels is usually higher at that time? When Strictly is raking in the millions, for example, does that mean BBC Four and Gold are suffering dips? The digital channels also may purposely not try as hard against big competition, keeping their biggest shows back to a less competitive time, meaning they rate even lower.

Well, BBC3 always used to have its biggest audiences later in the evening, when all the main channels had packed up. People used to slag it off because its top ten was stuffed with Family Guy, but that was because it didn't have much competition.

It's like how in the nineties, Countdown was one of C4's most popular programmes and all five episodes each week would usually get in the top ten, as it was pretty much the only adult show broadcast at that time, with kids shows on BBC1 and ITV and something boring on BBC2, so it had a captive audience.

You don't get that much these days, ratings rocketing, like it used to because of bad weather. Loads of the highest rated programmes in the eighties were all shown in one week in January 1982 as the weather that week was so bad, similarly the most watched episode of Neighbours in the nineties was a nondescript one broadcast during the Burns Day Storm in January 1990. I think the last time that happened was when the Strictly final in 2010 got a bumper rating cos everyone was snowed in.

[XIII]

Didn't the Keith Allen drama Jack of Hearts get a low rating on BBC1 as well when it launched with less than 2m?

It wasn't the first episode of Jack of Hearts but one of the later episodes was, for a while, the lowest rated primetime drama in BBC1 history, as it was part of Black Wednesday - the night in September 1999 when BBC1 was beaten by Channel 5 who had an England match. Can't remember what the figure was, but it was beaten in 2009 by one of the final episodes of Robin Hood which was up against the SuBo Britain's Got Talent final.

I think the smallest audience on primetime ITV was a nondescript doc on the night of the 2012 Paralympics opening ceremony, which got just over 600k I think.

Robin Hood's low ratings was because it was shunted to BBC Two for its last episode in favour of Andy Murray at Wimbledon coverage. I suspect it was going to axed regardless but it was poor form by the BBC.

[Steve Williams]

Robin Hood's low ratings was because it was shunted to BBC Two for its last episode in favour of Andy Murray at Wimbledon coverage. I suspect it was going to axed regardless but it was poor form by the BBC.

That was a different episode, the one that got about 1.5 million was on BBC1, as I say opposite the Britain's Got Talent final. Then the final episode of that series, and the last one of all, was indeed dumped on BBC2 during Wimbledon, and unsurprisingly got an even lower rating. But that was on BBC2.