Marathon Wimbledon Final Tops Weekend Ratings

Rafael Nadal’s win over Roger Federer pulled in a peak of more than 11.9 million adult viewers, in a slot which lasted a record eight hours on BBC One yesterday.

The Wimbledon men’s final attracted a 41.1% audience share between 1.30pm and 9.30pm – running over scheduled programmes such as the new drama George Gently.

An average of 9.5 million adult viewers tuned in to see Nadal hold off the challenge of five-time defending champion Roger Federer during the last 90 minutes – between 8 and 9.30pm – eventually winning the final set 9-7.

The match was due to start at 2pm but was delayed by rain, which also stopped play once more during the course of the day.

ITV1’s British Grand Prix coverage clashed with the start of Wimbledon but managed a respectable average audience of four million adult viewers, who witnessed Lewis Hamilton become the first British driver since 1995 to win his home grand prix.

Elsewhere, the final episode of Doctor Who on Saturday evening pulled in more than eight million adult viewers between 6.40pm and 7.45pm, while the Wimbledon women’s final between the Williams sisters attracted 3.7 million viewers in the Saturday afternoon slot on BBC One.

Channel 4’s Big Brother Friday eviction programme, which saw Jen leave the house and three new females enter – model Maysoon, Australian Sara and theatrical Belinda – was seen by an average of 3.4 million adult viewers.

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, ITV2 and Sky One.

BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk

ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com

Channel Four: 020 7396 4444 www.channel4.com