Controversial documentary series draws bigger ratings than any of broadcaster's shows in 2013, with 17.2% audience share
Channel 4's controversial documentary series Benefits Street launched on Monday night with more than 4 million viewers – better figures than any show it broadcast in 2013.
The five part series, which focuses on a Birmingham street that Channel 4 claims is one of the most dependent on benefits in the country, attracted 4.3 million viewers, a 17.2% share, from 9pm.
Filmed in the Winson Green area of Birmingham, the series aims to reveal the daily challenges faced by struggling families, such as poverty, illiteracy, and drug and alcohol problems.
Residents of the street have claimed to the Birmingham Mail they were tricked into appearing in the show, made by independent producer Love Productions.
They claim they took part after film-makers assured them that the series would be about community spirit.
But they said the show paints residents as anti-social benefit scroungers, irresponsible parents, drug-takers and foul-mouthed wasters.
A Channel 4 spokesman told the Birmingham Mail: "This is a fair and balanced observational documentary series.
"It is a fair reflection of the reality of life on a street where the majority of households receive benefits.
"The contributors were briefed extensively before any filming took place. If any residents requested not to be filmed they were not.
"The main contributors have been offered the opportunity to view the programmes they feature in before transmission to make any comments about their contributions.
"As far as we are aware we have appropriate consent for any private phone calls that appear in the series."
Controversy aside, Benefits Street augers well for Channel 4 in 2014 after a lacklustre ratings performance in 2013. Within a week of the new year starting, the broadcaster has already topped its best ratings figures for 2013, ahead of Nigella Lawson's hotly anticipated cookery talent show The Taste, launching Tuesday night, and celebrity winter sports series The Jump, which is due in early 2014.
Benefits Street attracted Channel 4's biggest overnight audience since The Snowman and The Snowdog, which attracted an average of 4.9 million on Christmas Eve 2012.
Channel 4's top-rating shows of 2013 were Big Fat Gypsy Valentine (4.1m/15.8%), Richard III: The King in the Car Park (3.7m/15.8%) and Educating Yorkshire (3.3m/14.9%).
The performance more than doubled Channel 4's slot average, up +122% for volume and up +110% for share comparatively. The show also attracted the highest share of 16- to 34-year-olds watching TV at the time, with 23.8% of that demographic tuning in to Benefits Street.
Competition in the 9pm slot on Monday came from BBC 1's David Nicholl's adaptation, The 7.39, starring Sheridan Smith and David Morrissey, with 5.7 million viewers, a 22.6% share.
The return of ITV's The Bletchley Circle, staring Anna Maxwell Martin and Rachael Stirling in the second series of the drama about a group of women codebreakers who turn their hand to post-second world war sleuthing, attracted 4.5 million viewers, an 18% share.
Also in the 9pm hour, Channel 5's Celebrity Big Brother pulled in 2.4 million viewers and a 9.7% share; while BBC2's fast repeat of Jeremy Clarkson documentary PQ17: an Arctic Convoy Disaster, first broadcast last Thursday, drew 1.1 million and 5%.
**All ratings are **Barb** overnight figures, including live, +1 (except for BBC channels) and same day timeshifted (recorded) viewing, but excluding on demand, or other – unless otherwise stated. Figures for BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 generally include ratings for their HD simulcast services, unless otherwise stated**
• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email media@theguardian.com or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".
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Channel 4's controversial documentary series Benefits Street launched on Monday night with more than 4 million viewers – better figures than any show it broadcast in 2013.
The five part series, which focuses on a Birmingham street that Channel 4 claims is one of the most dependent on benefits in the country, attracted 4.3 million viewers, a 17.2% share, from 9pm.
Filmed in the Winson Green area of Birmingham, the series aims to reveal the daily challenges faced by struggling families, such as poverty, illiteracy, and drug and alcohol problems.
Residents of the street have claimed to the Birmingham Mail they were tricked into appearing in the show, made by independent producer Love Productions.
They claim they took part after film-makers assured them that the series would be about community spirit.
But they said the show paints residents as anti-social benefit scroungers, irresponsible parents, drug-takers and foul-mouthed wasters.
A Channel 4 spokesman told the Birmingham Mail: "This is a fair and balanced observational documentary series.
"It is a fair reflection of the reality of life on a street where the majority of households receive benefits.
"The contributors were briefed extensively before any filming took place. If any residents requested not to be filmed they were not.
"The main contributors have been offered the opportunity to view the programmes they feature in before transmission to make any comments about their contributions.
"As far as we are aware we have appropriate consent for any private phone calls that appear in the series."
Controversy aside, Benefits Street augers well for Channel 4 in 2014 after a lacklustre ratings performance in 2013. Within a week of the new year starting, the broadcaster has already topped its best ratings figures for 2013, ahead of Nigella Lawson's hotly anticipated cookery talent show The Taste, launching Tuesday night, and celebrity winter sports series The Jump, which is due in early 2014.
Benefits Street attracted Channel 4's biggest overnight audience since The Snowman and The Snowdog, which attracted an average of 4.9 million on Christmas Eve 2012.
Channel 4's top-rating shows of 2013 were Big Fat Gypsy Valentine (4.1m/15.8%), Richard III: The King in the Car Park (3.7m/15.8%) and Educating Yorkshire (3.3m/14.9%).
The performance more than doubled Channel 4's slot average, up +122% for volume and up +110% for share comparatively. The show also attracted the highest share of 16- to 34-year-olds watching TV at the time, with 23.8% of that demographic tuning in to Benefits Street.
Competition in the 9pm slot on Monday came from BBC 1's David Nicholl's adaptation, The 7.39, starring Sheridan Smith and David Morrissey, with 5.7 million viewers, a 22.6% share.
The return of ITV's The Bletchley Circle, staring Anna Maxwell Martin and Rachael Stirling in the second series of the drama about a group of women codebreakers who turn their hand to post-second world war sleuthing, attracted 4.5 million viewers, an 18% share.
Also in the 9pm hour, Channel 5's Celebrity Big Brother pulled in 2.4 million viewers and a 9.7% share; while BBC2's fast repeat of Jeremy Clarkson documentary PQ17: an Arctic Convoy Disaster, first broadcast last Thursday, drew 1.1 million and 5%.
**All ratings are **Barb** overnight figures, including live, +1 (except for BBC channels) and same day timeshifted (recorded) viewing, but excluding on demand, or other – unless otherwise stated. Figures for BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 generally include ratings for their HD simulcast services, unless otherwise stated**
• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email media@theguardian.com or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".
• To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook. Reported by guardian.co.uk 14 hours ago.