TV Overnights: Lost finale hits a high of over 921,000 viewers

Loyal fans of the ABC series Lost got up at 5am on Monday morning to watch the season finale on Sky 1 and Sky 1 HD, which was purposely aired at the same time as its US showing (broadcast on ABC’s west coast network from 8pm to 11pm on Sunday night).

In the UK, the two and a half hour programme attracted an average of almost 584,000 viewers and a 22.7% audience share, which outperformed Sky1”s usual Friday night prime time slot.  In the past month, Lost has secured between 500,000 and 575,000 viewers at 9pm on Friday evenings.

The show’s much-anticipated finale pulled in a bigger audience than BBC One’s Breakfast and ITV1’s GMTV, peaking with more than 921,000 viewers at around 5.30am.

In the US, the final Lost banked 13 million peak viewers on ABC on Sunday evening at 9pm, which is the highest ratings for the show for two years.  ABC is thought to have made millions from advertising slots around the programme, with companies reportedly willing to pay up to $900,000 for a 30-second spot.

Last year, a 30-second spot during Lost was selling for an average of $213,563, according to Advertising Age, so a spot worth $900,000 for the high-profile finale would represent a 400% markup.

“The hefty cost – the price is just $400,000 to $600,000 less than the cost of a 30-second spot in this year’s Oscars broadcast – further illustrates the interest advertisers have in so-called event programming. With audiences increasingly watching TV programmes at times of their own choosing and through nontraditional methods such as DVR playback, assembling a large crowd has become a much tougher task,” Advertising Age commented.

In other TV overnight ratings, ITV1’s Monday evening line-up held the peak share from 7pm onwards.  Coronation Street, on at the earlier time of 7pm to accommodate the channel’s football coverage, pulled in 6.6 million peak viewers and a 35% average audience share during its 30-minute slot.

The Live International Football, meanwhile, secured a high of more than 8.7 million viewers and a 31.6% average audience share between 7.30pm and 10.10pm.  Over 7.1 million average viewers tuned in to see England beat Mexico 3-1 in the friendly match at Wembley Stadium.

On Sunday, ITV1 also dominated the prime time ratings with Britain’s Got Talent and the one-off show – An Audience with Michael Buble.  Britain’s Got Talent continued with another round of auditions, pulling in 9.8 million peak viewers and an impressive 41.6% audience share between 8pm and 9pm.

Meanwhile, An Audience with Michael Buble started on a high of 6.4 million viewers at 9pm but settled on a slightly lower 5.7 million viewers and a 26.7% average audience share during the hour-long 9pm to 10pm peak slot.

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.