BBC One sees USA’s World Cup exit peak at 8.4m
It was BBC One’s responsibility to bear the brunt of Tuesday’s FIFA World Cup 2014 entertainment with things getting under way at 4:30pm as Argentina battled Switzerland for a place in this weekend’s quarter finals.
With the actual game kicking off at 5pm at the Arena de Sao Paulo, an average audience of 4.4 million viewers and a 31% share watched as Argentina sent Switzerland out of the tournament, thanks to a lucky goal in extra time.
In a horrifying blow for fans of constructed desolation, last night’s merry visit to EastEnders was postponed for another day, due to the fact that neither team seemed to have the ability to score a goal in the allotted stretch.
Viewers peaked in the closing moment of the extended game (7:15pm), all the way up to 6.9 million excited souls, as Argentine midfielder Ángel di María finally managed to get one of those balls in the correct net in the 118th minute.
After a wee break for a bit of BBC News (7:45pm) and Regional News and Weather (8:10pm) (with 5 million and 4.9 million viewers, respectively) it was straight back to Brazil for the broadcaster, with coverage of the Belgium and USA match starting at 8:35pm.
Yesterday’s biggest average audience watched in gleeful anticipation to see if the USA – the football world’s latest cluster of cocky young upstarts – would see their soccer dreams shattered into a million pieces. 7.1 million viewers stayed gripped for the entire coverage on BBC One. The USA’s 2-1 defeat netted a whopping 40% share and peaked at 8.4 million viewers around 9:30pm.
It was business as usual over on ITV with a dependable soap, a slew of repeats and some genteel teatime gardening action. The shouty crime-riddled drama of Emmerdale kicked off at the usual time of 7pm as the Barton’s continued to implode (it’s what is usually expected of new families in the area) as everyone was dealing with the aftermath of Moira’s revelations.
A significantly low audience of 4.2 million viewers watched as poor old Andy Sugden lost a serious fight with a hay baler driven by a stocious Adam Barton, resulting in a 23% share.
Right afterwards, Alan Titchmarsh and his gang of earthy types helped out another deserving family in Love Your Garden (ITV) at 7:30pm, securing 2.4 million viewers and a 14% share, while a repeat of You’ve Been Framed (8:30pm) brought in 1.5 million viewers.
Over on Channel 4, even Phil and Kirsty looked like they found it straining to feign their special brand of banter at this point in Location, Location, Location (8pm). Regardless, a dedicated audience of just over 1 million viewers caught up with the latest episode from the eighteenth series, resulting in a 6% share.
The BBC owned the 9pm slot thanks to the USA match but ITV managed second place with a repeat visit to sunny Benidorm. The episode from 2014 didn’t quite compete with the big game but still managed an audience of 1.4 million viewers and a 7% share.
Doing almost as well over on Channel 4 was the third and final visit to The Auction House at 9pm. Last night saw the faux-plummy folk, wot think they live in Chelsea, flog/buy the usual array of tasteless – yet highly expensive tat – with 1.4 million viewers and a 7% share tuning in for some (fore)closure.
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