‘It was a binding experience’: TV producers mourn decline of hot 9pm slot

ITV’s thriller Coldwater, starring Ewen Bremner and Andrew Lincoln, front, was described by the Guardian as ‘top-quality nonsense’. Photograph: ITV

Last month something unusual happened in the television world. At 9pm, traditionally a crucial time slot for Britain’s main broadcasters, none of their shows were able to attract an average audience of 1 million viewers.

An ITV documentary about Madeleine McCann was the most popular in the slot, drawing a broadcast audience of less than 900,000 viewers. It happened again less than a week later when ITV’s thriller Coldwater narrowly beat Channel 5’s Fare Dodgers: At War With the Law. The unwelcome phenomenon has since happened for a third time.