BBC Two’s Monday evening show Chess Masters: The Endgame reached its final this week amid a continuing debate between experts, who found it patronising, and social players, novices and children who enjoyed its light touch and focus on personalities. The series was placed in a testing environment, the 8pm slot, sandwiched between the intellectual heavyweights Mastermind and University Challenge.
Viewer numbers, as supplied by Broadcast, peaked in the first week at 890,000, then gradually dipped to a low of 535,000 on Easter Monday before rebounding to 655,000, a 5.5% share of the viewing audience, for the final week.
