Sunday 31st July 2011
Dragons’ Den returned for its ninth season on BBC2 at 9pm. The Sony Pictures Television International/BBC Entertainment North co-production now features a fifth dragon, in the shape of Hilary Devey. The format remains the same, with hopeful entrepreneurs presenting their ideas and inventions to try and secure backing from one of the dragons. The audience of just under 4m (17%), provided an excellent Performance Index of 142.6, and was a big increase on the average of 2.8m (11.4%) for the 2010 season, which mostly aired on Monday nights.
Top Gear closed out the current series at 8pm on BBC2. The sixth edition of this season of the BBC’s laddish television motoring show drew an audience of 4.7m (20.7%) and a Performance Index of 217.4. This brought the average to 4.4m (18.7%). This was a reduction in audience from the January run, which was watched by 5.4m, but an increase on the January Share figure of 18.4%.
The Royal ended – supposedly for good – on a cliffhanger, which will no doubt annoy its fans, as the fate of one of the characters hung in the balance. The ITV-produced nostalgic drama, set in a Yorkshire hospital in the 1960s, has run for eight seasons, but the last cases were treated at 7pm on ITV1. The audience of 3.9m (20.1%) on ITV1 SD+HD brought the final season average to 4.3m (20.8%), and gave a Performance Index of 91.2.
