Top-rated shows of the year

There was a headline on MediaGuardian today which I had to read several times before properly believing...

ITV1 triumphs in 2006 ratings

In a year which has seemingly been a bit of a disaster for ITV with turkey after turkey hitting the screens, advertising revenues slumping and the departure of much-maligned Chief Exec Charles Allen, it must come as great cheer to ITV - and complete amazement to most of the viewing public - that ITV actually managed to notch up eight of out the ten best-rating shows of 2006.

The figures exclude the World Cup programming and, oddly, are published with 10 days of the year remaining, excluding some of the potential big Christmas ratings figures still to come such as the Strictly Come Dancing final on Saturday night. But ITV have scored a whopping 80% of the tally with perennial favourite Coronation Street topping the tree with 12.5 million viewers for an episode in March.

One of the BBC's two entries, EastEnders, in second place with a top audience of 12.3m with ITV's Dancing on Ice final in third with 11.6m.

The full top ten for the year is:
01. Coronation Street
02. EastEnders
03. Dancing on Ice Final
04. Lewis
05. Wild at Heart
06. X-Factor Final
07. A Touch of Frost
08. I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here!
09. Strictly Come Dancing
10. Emmerdale

In a ITV year which will go down in memory (in my mind at least) for the likes of Love Island, The Sharon Osbourne Show, It's Now or Never, Prehistoric Park, Extinct and the like, it's worth dwelling on the above list just for a few moments to remind ourselves that all may not quite be lost just yet. Although, if you do intend to linger over the list, try to keep your gaze averted from number 5, which still remains top of my "How the...? What the...?" list of successes.

~~steve~~
www.tellytunes.com