TV Overnights: BBC One’s Match of the Day Live scores 8.2m peak viewers

BBC One’s Match of the Day Live coverage dominated the peak-time ratings last night with a high of 8.2 million viewers.

The two-hour-long Carling Cup semi-final game, which saw Manchester City beat its rival Manchester United 2-1 after two goals from the former United player Carlos Tevez, pulled in more than 7.3 million viewers and a 28.8% average audience share.

The football gave BBC One the advantage during yesterday evening’s television schedule.  The channel held on to the peak audience from 5.15pm onwards with the exception of the 7pm to 7.30pm slot, which saw ITV1’s Emmerdale take the lead, and the final 30 minutes of Channel 4’s Celebrity Big Brother between 10.45pm and 11.15pm.

BBC One’s Eastenders attracted the highest overall ratings of the evening with over 10 million peak viewers and a 42% average audience share between 7.30pm and 8pm, just before the football started.

However, BBC Two also had a fairly good night.  The channel’s pre-9 o’clock programme, The Hairy Bikers:  Mums Know Best, picked up more than 3.7 million viewers and a 14.9% share, while its new peak-time show How Earth Made Us pulled in over 3.4 million average viewers and a 13.3% share.

The first episode of the new five-part series, which sees Iain Stewart explain how geology, geography and climate have influenced humanity, managed to come second to BBC One’s Match of the Day Live during the 9pm to 10pm peak-slot.

ITV1’s Piers Morgan On Shanghai followed with 2.9 million average viewers and a 11.3% share, while Five’s ever-popular CSI: Crime Scene Investigation came in fourth place with 2.4 million viewers and a 9.3% share.

The second episode of Channel 4’s Gordon’s Great Escape, meanwhile, fell below its terrestrial rivals during the peak-hour, pulling in a fairly low 1.8 million average viewers and a 7% audience share.

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.