Channel Five's Joseph Fiennes drama FlashForward finished the first part of its debut season run with just under 2 million viewers last night, Monday 30 November.
The US sci-fi series, which also stars fellow Brit actors Jack Davenport and Dominic Monaghan, pulled in 1.9 million viewers and an 8% share between 9pm and 10pm, according to unofficial overnight figures.
FlashForward, which airs close to its transmission date in the US, will now take a mid-season break after 10 of its 22 episodes, and will return to Five in the new year.
The drama began with 3.2 million viewers in September, and has gone on to maintain a typical weekly audience of more than 2 million viewers for its Monday night outing.
Last night the second part of BBC2's art competition, School of Saatchi, drew 700,000 viewers and a 3% share, also between 9pm and 10pm.
At the same time the second instalment of Channel 4's drama documentary The Queen picked up 2 million viewers and an 8% share, with another 162,000 viewers on Channel 4 +1.
BBC2's Miranda Hart sitcom, Miranda, enjoyed its biggest audience so far with 3 million viewers and a 12% share between 8.30pm and 9pm. Miranda's previous high was 2.6 million for its second episode two weeks ago.
The comedy, which also stars Patricia Hodge, was only 400,000 viewers behind BBC1's Panorama, about Tesco, which attracted 3.4 million viewers and a 14% share.
But the slot – and the heart of the prime-time schedule – was won by ITV1's I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, which pulled in 8.8 million viewers and a 35% share between 8.30pm and 10pm.
I'm a Celebrity beat the eighth of BBC1's 10-part natural history series Life, which drew 4 million viewers and a 16% share between 9pm and 10pm.
Earlier, ITV1's Tonight recruited Chris Tarrant for its investigation into teaching, Chris Tarrant – Who Wants To Be A Teacher?, which attracted 3.5 million viewers and a 14% share between 8pm and 8.30pm.
BBC1's EastEnders pulled in 8.9 million viewers and a 37% share at the same time.
Five's Gadget Show winter special garnered 1.4 million viewers and a 6% share between 8pm and 9pm.
Also in the 8pm hour, Channel 4's Dispatches: Lords, Billionaires and the Russian Connection pulled in 700,000 viewers, a 3% share, and another 35,000 on Channel 4 +1.
ITV1's soap pairing of Emmerdale and Coronation Street took the ratings honours between 7pm and 8pm, with 7.2 million viewers and a 33% share, and 9.7 million and a 41%, respectively.
The two soaps beat BBC1's The One Show, with 5.2 million viewers and a 24% share, and regional programme Inside Out, which drew 3.7 million viewers and a 16% share.
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NEW YORK, Dec. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon is delivering more international content to its FiOS TV subscribers with the launch of three new channels from World TV that feature Korean, Mandarin and Greek programming. With the additions, FiOS TV subscribers now have access to 35 international channels covering 20 languages - a collection that cable can't match. The three new channels will be available in all FiOS TV markets by the end of the week.
"International programming on FiOS TV offers a world of diverse channels in a growing variety of languages," said Terry Denson, vice president of content strategy and acquisition for Verizon. "We are introducing our first Greek channel, along with new Korean and Mandarin channels, and delivering an expanding international offering with the amazing picture-and-sound quality that only FiOS delivers."
Verizon FiOS TV's new international programming consists of:
- YTN (channel 1761), the CNN news channel of Korea, which joins a new Korean package that also includes MBC (channel 1760) for $24.99 per month.
- Phoenix North America (channel 1797), a Mandarin channel offering news and entertainment, including programs like "Phoenix North America News" and "Experience America"; the channel joins CCTV4 (channel 1795) and CTI (channel 1796) in a new Chinese Mandarin package for $15.99 per month.
- Antenna (channel 1789), FiOS TV's first Greek channel, featuring comedies, dramas, news, current affairs programs, game shows, entertainment programming and more for $14.99 per month.
The three new channels come from World TV, a division of content management and delivery company GlobeCast, which signed a distribution deal last year with Verizon for top-tier international channels, including Russian channel RTR Planeta, Romanian channels Pro TV and RSC1, Portuguese channel RTPi, and more.
Verizon is currently offering new customers who subscribe to Verizon's better or best bundled package of FiOS TV, FiOS Internet and phone service the option to add one International TV package free of charge for three months.* Customers can select a package in any one of the following languages: Chinese, Filipino, German, Hindi, Korean, Punjabi, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish or Vietnamese. Total savings on the International TV package, if selected, range from $29.97 to $104.97, depending on the bundled packages selected.
FiOS TV offers a broad collection of programming, with more than 500 all-digital channels including more than 126 HD channels and more than 18,000 monthly VOD titles. FiOS provides next-generation interactive services including an advanced interactive media guide; news, entertainment and social TV widgets; remote DVR management; multi-room DVR; and more.
For more information on these new channels on FiOS TV call 1-800-VERIZON (1-800-837-4966). For customer service support in Chinese call 877-576-7015; and in Korean call 877-703-7015.
For the latest news, updates and information about FiOS TV, visit www.verizon.com/newscenter and http://www.verizon.com/athomeblog.
*Three-month credits will be given for the selected International TV package.
Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ), headquartered in New York, is a global leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers. Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, serving more than 89 million customers nationwide. Verizon also provides converged communications, information and entertainment services over America's most advanced fiber-optic network, and delivers innovative, seamless business solutions to customers around the world. A Dow 30 company, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of more than 230,000 and last year generated consolidated revenues of more than $97 billion. For more information, visit www.verizon.com.
VERIZON'S ONLINE NEWS CENTER: Verizon news releases, executive speeches and biographies, media contacts, high quality video and images, and other information are available at Verizon's News Center on the World Wide Web at www.verizon.com/news. To receive news releases by e-mail, visit the News Center and register for customized automatic delivery of Verizon news releases.
SOURCE Verizon
At the beginning of Margot (BBC4), a cautionary caption read: "The following drama is based on real events, although some scenes are the invention of the writer. I didn't know much about the life of Dame Margot Fonteyn – not a thing, if I'm honest – so I was left wondering which bits were invented.
For instance: did she and Rudolf Nureyev actually have sex? This does not strike me as a mere detail; if you didn't include it, the drama would have been different to the point where you might not bother making it. Apparently he claimed they did, even though she always denied it, and I'm happy to accept that for the sake of argument it probably happened at least once – but it interrupts the flow of a drama when you keep hitting pause to check Wikipedia.
Like all the programmes in BBC4's Women We Loved series, this had a brilliant central performance. Anne-Marie Duff was utterly believable as Dame Margot, already in her mid-40s and on the verge of retirement when the Russian dancer came into her life. It was weird to see Nureyev playing second fiddle in someone else's biopic, swanning about and talking like Tarzan, but it was probably for the best that the actor playing him was not as compelling a presence as the real thing.
The dancing also had to take a back seat; it was sort of hinted at by cutting together the actors' faces and close-ups of dancing feet, and throwing in a few silhouettes. This worked pretty well, although the later sequences, which strained to illustrate some of Fonteyn's mental turmoil, were a bit overwrought.
Not knowing the real story, I was often a little confused, especially when vital information was conveyed by either Nureyev or Fonteyn's Panamanian diplomat husband Tito Arias; the former's accent was sometimes impenetrable, the latter's simply alarming. Its Latino tinge seemed to vary in strength even across a single sentence. I have no idea what he sounded like in real life, although Wikipedia says he went to high school in New Jersey.
The details of Arias's gun-running were only sketched in; perhaps we weren't meant to understand because Dame Margot herself never seemed to grasp the nature of her husband's politics or his philandering. I thought a tiny bit of clumsy exposition would have helped here, although I realise there's a fine line between insulting my intelligence and underestimating my ignorance. I checked Wikipedia again afterwards, and it all makes sense to me now. I'm beginning to wonder how I ever watched TV without it.
At the beginning of The Queen (Channel 4) there was a cautionary caption, too: "The documentary scenes are based on the best available sources. The drama is imagined." It was pretty clear here which bit was which: the real consisted of grainy footage and talking heads; the imagined was the part where the Queen and Harold Wilson chat while doing the washing up. I'm fairly certain this never happened, although Wikipedia cannot help me here.
Last night's instalment was much more successful than the first. This was probably because the first one made the monarchy seem like a bygone irrelev-ance, and this one was actually about the monarchy being a bygone irrelevance, at least in the eyes of certain cabinet members and several sections of the public. This was the early 1970s, when public opinion was turning against royal extravagance even as the Queen was asking for more money. Miners were on strike, and Prince Philip was on TV telling people he might have to give up polo. When the Queen went to engagements students jeered her: "obscene songs were sung, and a stinkbomb was thrown" said a contemporary report. It's strange to see how far the republican tide has receded since, although Dennis Skinner seems every bit as angry about the royal family's spending today as he was at the time.
In the end this was a far more sympathetic portrait, with Samantha Bond imbuing the imagined sections with a steely dignity. The dramatic reconstruction of the 1973 attempted kidnapping of Princess Anne was actually quite terrifying, although one was left with the impression that the Princess Royal fought off a deranged gunman by being extremely condescending to him. Real or imagined, I'm prepared to believe it.
Here are the comparative TV ratings of ABS-CBN, TV5, and GMA-7 programs from November 24 to 26, based on the overnight ratings of AGB Nielsen Philippines among Mega Manila households:
November 24, Tuesday
Morning:
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