All Black’s Rugby Word Cup conquest peaks at 8.2m on ITV
After 43 long days of hard tackles, sore losses and patriotic binge drinking, Saturday finally brought an end to the 2015 Rugby World Cup as London’s Twickenham Stadium played host to the thrilling clash between antipodean rivals New Zealand and Australia.
ITV kicked off proceedings at 3pm, with presenter John Inverdale ushering in a horde of ex-players tasked with filling up an hour of television by drumming up excitement with the usual mixture of professional guesswork and ‘analysis’.
The intense final kicked off at 4pm, with Halloween bringing a frightful defeat for Australia while New Zealand stole the crown with a 34-17 victory. An average audience of 4.7 million viewers tuned in for the three and a half hours of coverage, resulting in a 32% share for the commercial broadcaster.
Unsurprisingly, interest soared in the closing minutes of the game, with a peak of 8.2 million viewers tuning in at 5:30pm.
As mighty as they were, the All Blacks failed to compare with BBC One’s parade of tapping feet, awkward intimacy and loads of people standing around smiling as Strictly Come Dancing (6:35pm) once again destroyed the weekend competition.
This week’s tantalising two-hour taste of fleshy family fun brought in a whopping 9.4 million viewers and a 46% share.
Not doing quite as well was ITV’s other competition of the day as the commercial broadcaster decided that the dedicated lost souls of The X Factor had nothing better to do on a Saturday night and kicked off over two and a half hours of super dramatic karaoke at 8pm.
An audience of 5.4 million viewers tuned in to see the manic contestants try to outperform each other with those superfluous hand gestures, resulting in a 27% share.
At the same time Channel 4 was paying some serious fan service to the gal who has got it all in How to Be Queen: 63 Years and Counting (8pm). The gushing feature length love letter pulled in 1.1 million viewers and resulted in a 5% share.
Over on BBC One Doctor Who and perky companion, Clara, battled their most dangerous enemy yet – sliding ratings. 3.9 million viewers tuned in to see yet another character return from the dead as space-faring genital warts, the Zygons invaded earth, pulling in a 19% share.
At 9:05pm Casualty (BBC One) continued to do its thing and secured 3.7 million viewers and a 19% share.
On Sunday, BBC One’s top ranking rural magazine show decided to raise some money in the most genteel and appropriate way imaginable as Countryfile’s Ramble for Children in Need (6pm) was watched by 5.9 million viewers and a 30% share.
Over on ITV, hammy children’s horror show Rubbish Hulk Jekyll and Hyde continued with the second episode of terrifying over acting bringing in 2.2 million viewers and a 10% share at 7pm.
[advert position=”left”]At 7:15pm on BBC One, a 45 minute helping of Strictly Come Dancing walked away with the weekend’s biggest audience 9.6 million viewers and a 41% share.
At 8pm Fiona Bruce and her gang of excitable trinket gawkers were back in Bolsover Castle for another bout of talking to little old ladies, with the latest thrilling episode of Antiques Roadshow (BBC One) bagging 5.9 million viewers and a 25% share.
On ITV, The X Factor Results (8pm) did better than Saturday night’s epic portion of desperate pleading (with a little bit of singing thrown in). 6.5 million viewers tuned in for the first results episode of the series, with a 27% share seeing two acts getting thrown out the back door by security.
BBC One kicked off a new seven part nature series at 9pm, with the first episode of The Hunt detailing the efforts animals go to get their pray, with 4.4 million viewers and a 34% share tuning in.
On ITV it was time for the penultimate episode of Downton Abbey (9pm) as the series raced towards the finish line. Last night saw Mr Carson and Mrs. Hughes’ mini sitcom continued downstairs while Lady Mary had some boy racer-related trouble on the upper deck.
7.5 million viewers tuned in to get their fix of the caustic Dowager Countess and the ever so contemporary Lady Edith while they could, resulting in a 34% share.
Overnight data is available each morning in mediatel.co.uk’s TV Database, with all BARB registered subscribers able to view reports for terrestrial networks and key multi-channel stations. Overnight data supplied by TRP are based on 15 minute slot averages. This may differ from tape checked figures, which are based on a programme’s actual start and end time.
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