Comic Relief dominates the weekend ratings
BBC One’s spectacular Comic Relief 2009 pulled in more than 12.7 million peak viewers on Friday evening.
The fund-raising extravaganza, presented by Davina McCall and David Tennant, attracted more than 10.3 million average viewers and an impressive 42.7% share between 7pm and 10pm on Friday.
The charity special switched to BBC Two for a short break for the BBC News, with Comic Relief Does Top of the Pops – the one-off live edition of the music show featuring U2, Oasis, Franz Ferninand and Tom Jones managed to pull in more than 7 million viewers and a slightly lower 31.6% share.
Meanwhile, Comic Relief part two, back on BBC One, with Fern Britton and Alan Carr attracted more than 9.6 million peak viewers and a high 51% share from 10.35pm onwards.
BBC One and Two managed to hold onto the peak audience throughout the Comic Relief event, with just a short break between 7.30pm and 8pm for Coronation Street.
Almost 9 million peak viewers switched to ITV1 to see Corrie’s wedding of the month, between Steve and Becky – securing the commercial broadcaster with a peak 35.7% share during the 30-minute slot.
On Saturday, Let’s Dance for Comic Relief pulled in the highest ratings of the day with 8.6 million peak viewers and a 35.5% average audience share between 7.15pm and 8.35pm.
However, sporting events dominated the ratings for the rest of the day, which secured BBC One with the peak audience for most of Saturday.
The corporation’s live coverage of the Six Nations Rugby peaked with over 4.5 million viewers during the Scotland Vs Ireland game.
Match of the Day and A Question of Sport also helped the channel bank the peak audience beyond the early evening slots, attracting 4.3 million and 1.5 million viewers respectively.
However, ITV managed to shine on Sunday evening with its ever-popular Dancing on Ice, Wild at Heart and Piers Morgan’s Life Stories.
Dancing on Ice attracted the highest ratings of all the programmes – more than 10.1 million peak viewers tuned in to see Coleen Nolan leave the show during the all-important semi-finals.
Donal, Jessica and Ray will skate it out for the Dancing on Ice 2009 trophy in the big finale next week.
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.