‘Victoria’ finale on ITV predictably topples ‘Poldark’ season 2 — but will it last?

The ratings battle between “Victoria” on ITV and “Poldark” on BBC One has proven rather interesting over the past few weeks, mostly because we are looking at two shows that are very entertaining, two shows that come from the same production company, and two shows that, in a perfect world, would never have been paired up against one another in the first place. Whoever opted to make this decision remains questionable in our eyes.

When we say that it is unsurprising that “Victoria” would win the battle on Sunday, it’s not meant as a slight against the Aidan Turner series in the slightest. Finales tend to perform slightly better than regular episodes, so to see it score 5.5 million viewers as opposed to 4.9 million for “Poldark” had to be expected.

To us, the larger question here really comes down to one simple thing: What happens next year? If these two shows are rivals in the same timeslot once more, what happens? We saw with “Victoria” near the end of this season a closing of the gap between it and “Poldark,” and given the mixed reviews for the Jenna Coleman series down the wire (it was a little plodding and devoid of enough significant developments) we would not be shocked if the needle moved more towards the favor of the BBC series.

With that said, hopefully the two shows just air at separate times next season, and we’re safe from having to deal with this problem in the first place. There are so many times on British TV where there is less in the way of engaging programming; the parties involved should be able to figure this out.

If you haven’t had a chance to read our recent “Poldark” episode review, we advise you to head over to this link and check it out! (Photo: ITV.)