TV Overnights: ITV1’s football scores the peak-hour top spot

ITV1’s Live UEFA Champions League coverage secured the highest ratings throughout most of the all-important 9pm to 10pm peak hour last night.

The Manchester United v Besiktas match, which saw United lose 1-0, peaked with a high of 5.7 million viewers between 9pm and 9.30pm.

The overall game pulled in 4.7 million average viewers and a 21% audience share between 7.30pm and 10pm.

However, the football was forced to battle it out with BBC One to secure the top spot throughout the evening line-up.  BBC One’s Jimmy’s Food Factory claimed the highest ratings between 7.30pm and 8pm with 5.8 million peak viewers.

Waterloo Road lost the peak share to ITV1 between 8pm and 8.30pm but managed to reclaim it for the second half of the hour-long show.  The long-running BBC One drama attracted a high of 5 million viewers between 8.30pm and 9pm.

However, the channel’s peak-hour programme Spooks, starring Peter Firth and Richard Armitage, lost out to the football for most of the 9pm to 10pm slot, with the exception of the final fifteen minutes.

The fourth episode of the eight-part crime drama peaked with 4.9 million viewers in the 9.45pm to 10pm slot but settled on 4.6 million average viewers and a 20.2% share throughout the overall 9pm to 10pm slot.

At the same time, BBC Two’s Andrew Marr’s The Making of Modern Britain picked up 2.4 million average viewers and a 10.4% share, while Channel 4’s The Family pulled in 1.8 million viewers and a 7.9% share.

Five’s 9 o’clock film Hitch, the romantic comedy starring Will Smith and Eva Mendes, attracted 1.2 million average viewers and a 6.4% audience share between 9pm and 11.25pm.

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.