Olympics Coverage Gets Gold For BBC One

It was a great weekend for Team GB at the Olympics, with gold medals galore pushing them into third place in the overall medals table.

The BBC’s comprehensive coverage meant that not a moment was missed, with Saturday morning on BBC One proving particularly alluring for viewers.

There was a pretty consistent viewing share of around 50% from 6am to midday, with a peak audience of 4.7 million viewers at both 10.35am and 11am.

Away from Beijing, viewers were treated to the return of The X Factor, with this season featuring new judge Cheryl Cole from top pop group Girls Aloud.

Saturday’s series opener, on for an hour from 7.30pm to 8.30pm, was easily the day’s most watched show, with a peak of 11.2 million viewers – a 50.7% share of the audience – tuning in just before the end. This marked the show’s highest ever launch rating.

Also making a return on Saturday evening was Match of The Day, picking up a peak of four million viewers (a 23.2% share) just after it started at 10.30pm.

The big figures on Sunday were for ITV1 shows Heartbeat and Midsomer Murders, playing back to back from 7pm.

Hour-long nostalgia fest Heartbeat had a peak audience of 7.1 million viewers (a 32.6% share), while Midsomer Murders, on from 8pm to 10pm, had a peak of 6.8 million viewers, a 28% share of the audience.

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.

BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com Channel Four: 020 7396 4444 www.channel4.com