TV ratings: Children in Need raises 11m viewers

by **GaryBarlowIsGod** Tue Nov 18, 2008 3:08 pm

guardian.co.uk, Monday November 17 2008 11.24 GMT

Children in Need 2008: Terry Wogan with Pudsey Bear helped raise a record £20,991,216 on the night. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

BBC1's Children in Need telethon peaked with more than 11 million viewers, more than three times the number who were watching ITV1's Taggart on Friday, November 14.

The annual fundraiser proved a ratings winner for BBC1, averaging 9.7 million viewers, a 42% share, for its first three hours from 7pm.

It then attracted 4.7 million viewers after the 10pm news on BBC1 between 10.35pm and 1am, a 48% share of the audience, according to unofficial overnight figures.

The BBC charity show peaked with 11.4 million viewers in the 15 minutes after 9.45pm, with an Eastenders west end musical and an exclusive performance by Take That.

This was slightly up on last year, when the first three hours of Children in Need averaged 9.4 million, with a peak of 10.9 million.

Only ITV1's 7.30pm edition of Coronation Street was able to match this year's show, with 7.4 million viewers. At the same time Children In Need had 7.3 million.

But the second edition of Coronation Street at 8.30pm could only manage 5.7 million viewers, 23% of the audience. At the same time Children In Need had 7.3 million.

Taggart averaged 3.6 million viewers from 9pm on ITV1, while TV's Naughtiest Blunders, at 10.30pm, had 1.5 million on the same network.

Children in Need remained popular into the small hours, with 4.6 million viewers, 51% of the audience, still watching at midnight. At the same time ITV1's Bingo Night Live had 200,000 viewers.

The charity appeal also proved a ratings boost for BBC2, with a Children in Need edition of QI attracting 4.2 million viewers, 19% of the audience at 10pm.

QI beat another showing for Four Weddings and a Funeral on Channel 4, which averaged 1.5 million viewers, a 7% share, from 9pm. Another 117,000 saw the Hugh Grant movie on Channel 4+1.

New BBC2 docusoap The Barristers averaged 1.2 million viewers at 9pm, a 5% share.

On Channel Five, an NCIS repeat at 9pm had 1 million viewers, while a new edition of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit at 10pm had 900,000 viewers.

Children in Need raised a record £20,991,216 on the night, beating all previous records and taking the total since the telethon began to over half a billion pounds.

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