Hot Chart On Chart Action With Stew, Mat and James (4)

We haven’t coloured in our Horne & Corden vs Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle ratings chart for a while, have we? We haven’t even remarked on the story about them being given a new series on BBC Two, which was later denied, only for claims that ITV are trying to poach their second series to pop up. Here’s the latest information with which to redress the first part of this imbalance, in graphical form.

(Source data: Digital Spy, Broadcast, MediaGuardian, etc.)

As we can see, both shows have lost viewers over the course of their first series. However, while Stew Lee has shedded around 15.2% of his audience between the first and most recent episodes, Horne & Corden have lost 52.0% of viewers by the time of their latest show. That saw just 392,000 people tuning in, insomuch as digital viewers ‘tune 'in’ to anything. Binary in? Bit in? There should be some sort of conversion table for elderly television references.

Being fair, figures rose impressively between eps three and four of H&C, possibly due to manufactured tabloid outrage over the ‘electric wheelchair’ gag in ep3, so data up to the fourth episodes of each show is considered, the drop in viewers is a more respectable 20.4% to Lee’s 15.2%. However, it’s the series as a whole we’re going to be considering, so by our calculations, unless Stew Lee and his comedic means of transport lose 427,000 viewers for next Monday night’s episode (which either is or isn’t about religion, depending on which listings guide you look at), Lee should remain on top.

Here’s another exciting chart of the respective week-by-week fortunes of the two shows.

A huge drop between weeks four and five for Horne and Corden, there. Now, we haven’t got around to watching all of episode four, but from this data we can only conclude that the grand finale to the episode was a huge song and dance number claiming that all BARB diarists routinely fellate livestock. In any event, the numbers tell their own tale, one which is going to be completely ignored when Horne and Corden get a second series, and Stewart Lee doesn’t. Prove us wrong, BBC honchos, prove us wrong.

As for coming up with a third part of our Comedy Showdown series, we’re looking into it. You just wouldn’t believe how hard it is to find a seeded torrent of Little and Large on the internet.

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