Attention-grabbing BAFTAs bags 4.5m and tops Twitter
This past weekend launched a fresh round of Six Nations Rugby action, with the bevy of games bringing decent daytime viewing figures for BBC One and ITV, the broadcasters currently sharing joint custody.
Saturday saw coverage of France v Ireland kick off at 2pm on BBC One at the Stade de France in Paris, bringing in an average audience of 3.4 million viewers and a 29% share over the two hour and 15 minute running time.
Of course, the audience peaked in the final throes of the game, with 4.5 million viewers tuning in at 4pm to see Ireland narrowly lose to the home team.
Straight up afterwards, the second game of the day was much closer to home and fared much better as a result. Coverage of Wales v Scotland, live from Cardiff, got underway half an hour before kickoff at 4:20pm and secured a stronger 5.2 million viewers and a 30% share, peaking at 6.4 million viewers at 6:15pm.
Elsewhere on Saturday, The Voice UK (7:15pm) reached the end of its unique selling point as the blind auditions came to an end for the fifth (and BBC One’s final) series.
The sixth episode in the current run once again saw Will.i.am, musician-turned-cheese-monger Ricky Wilson, a replaceable sass-spouting popstrel and, for some mad reason, anthropomorphised cement mixer Boy George, cartoonishly fawn over mediocre singers on a mediocre show.
The latest exciting episode of over the top reactions and spinning chairs took in 6.5 million viewers and a 31% share.
Over on ITV at 7pm, a little under 4 million viewers tuned in to see nobody win Ninja Warrior UK for the second year in a row resulting in a 30% share.
Sunday brought another Six Nations Rugby game, this time on ITV, as the commercial broadcaster dedicated three and a half hours of its schedule to Italy v England at 1pm.
Unfortunately for ITV, the game couldn’t match BBC One’s offerings from the day before with just 3 million viewers tuning in for the game, resulting in a 24% share.
The mammothly popular Countryfile came along at 7pm on BBC One and once again walked away with the weekend’s biggest audience – and it wasn’t hard to see why.
Just under 8 million viewers and a massive 37% share tuned in to see Adam Henson visit an egg farm while Matt Baker walked about the Norfolk Broads.
Almost as popular was the latest flesh-tearing drama of Call the Midwife at 8pm on BBC One, as 7.6 million viewers and a 30% share caught up with the latest adventures in ye olde timey birthing.
Over on ITV, regional police procedural Vera (8pm) hooked in 4.7 million viewers and a 20% share with its latest two hour case.
Over on Channel 4 just under 2 million viewers and an 8% share tuned in to hopefully see someone from TOWIE kill themselves for the public’s entertainment pleasure on The Jump.
Things were a little more prestigious and fancy over on BBC One at 9pm, although The British Academy Film Awards were beginning to resemble the MTV Movie Awards with its social media-baiting antics, with ‘serious actors’ now embracing transparency and showing themselves as the desperate attention-seeking husks they are.
4.5 million viewers and a 23% share sat through two hours of backslapping and self-congratulation, but clearly did something right and generated the most amount of tweets of the day by spawning internet outrages and easily shareable casual moments from the famous.
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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