TV Overnights: Live Eastenders attracts over 16m viewers

BBC One’s Live Eastenders pulled in a massive 16.1 million peak viewers on Friday night.

The special 30-minute live episode celebrating 25 years of the soap, which revealed Archie’s killer after week’s of anticipation, pulled in over 15.6 million average viewers and an impressive 57.5% audience share between 8pm and 8.30pm.

Over on ITV1, the channel’s Friday evening soap line-up dominated the pre-watershed slot.  Emmerdale picked up more than 7.8 million viewers, while Coronation Street‘s double episode hit a high of over 10.2 million peak viewers.

At 9pm, the final Pop Star to Opera Star secured the peak-hour top spot for ITV1 with 4.2 million peak viewers and a 15.5% average audience share.

On Saturday, BBC One dominated the ratings throughout most of the daytime and evening schedule.  The channel’s run of Final Score, Total Wipeout, Let’s Dance for Sport Relief, The National Lottery, Casualty, The Weakest Link and Match of the Day banked the peak audience from 4.30pm onwards with the exception of one 15 minute slot at 9.30pm.

However, on Sunday it was ITV1’s turn to take the lead.  Dancing on Ice peaked with more than 8.6 million viewers while Wild at Heart picked up a high of 6.5 million viewers.

Dancing on Ice: The Skate Off, meanwhile, pulled in more than 7 million peak viewers and a 26.5% average share between 9.30pm and 10pm.

Despite ITV1’s Sunday evening lead, BBC One managed to bank the top spot for Match of the Day Live, Countryfile and the end of the BAFTAs, which attracted 3.9 million peak 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 and key multi-channel stations.