TELEVISION / Statistics

After all the wailing and gnashing of teeth, Eldorado could hardly have gone out with a whimper. All three of the final week's episodes made it into the BBC1 Top 30, the first time this had happened since the ill-fated soap's third week on the screens in July last year. The very final episode for the likes of Marcus, Pilar and Ingrid (Bo Corre, right) was, not surprisingly, the most popular of three, hitting No 16 with an audience of 7.22 million; and this did not include the viewers for the following Monday's repeat showing, which should push the total figure up towards the 11 million mark, the level that Neighbours and Home and Away occupy and for which Eldorado was intended. The send-off figures do not prove that the BBC was wrong to drop the show: in the previous week not one episode reached the Top 30.

BBC1's unfavourable audience share, which was much quoted in last week's BBC controversy, now stands at 29.9 per cent compared to ITV's 39.5 per cent. A year ago, BBC1's share was 33.3 per cent compared to ITV's 38.8 per cent; two years ago, BBC1's share was 35.3 per cent compared to ITV's 42.3 per cent.

(Photograph omitted)