TV Overnights: 17.4m viewers watch England’s World Cup defeat

A high of more than 17.4 million viewers watched England’s World Cup exit on Sunday after a shocking 4-1 defeat against Germany.

More than 14 million England fans tuned in for the kick-off at 3pm, hopeful of a better performance against long-time rivals Germany following a poor start to the tournament.  However, the team went into half time 2-1 down after a late Lampard goal was disallowed.

BBC One peaked with 17.4 million viewers in the first fifteen minutes of the second half but viewers steadily dropped after that, with fans unwilling or unable to watch England lose to the Germans once again.

BBC One’s full Match of the Day coverage pulled in 12.1 million average viewers and a high 63.8% share between 2pm and 5.15pm yesterday.

Unsurprisingly, World Cup 2010 games dominated the majority of the weekend ratings.  More than 7.3 million peak viewers tuned in to BBC One yesterday evening to see Argentina’s victory against Mexico, while ITV1 led the way on Saturday with two matches.

The Uruguay v South Korea game scored a high of 3.8 million viewers on Saturday afternoon, before the USA v Ghana match secured 8.2 million peak viewers and a 27.7% share for ITV1 during the all-important evening slot.

However, aside from Saturday’s football, the BBC boasted the best weekend line-up.  BBC One and BBC Two’s schedule centered around the England game, the European Grand Prix Live, Wimbledon 2010 and Glastonbury 2010 highlights.

On Saturday, 2.4 million peak viewers tuned in to BBC One for the Grand Prix Qualifier, while the channel’s afternoon coverage of Wimbledon pulled in a high of 2 million viewers.  BBC Two’s coverage, meanwhile, peaked with 3.2 million viewers on Saturday evening.

On Sunday, the Formula One race attracted more than 5 million peak viewers for BBC Two before the big match on BBC One.  Meanwhile, BBC Two’s coverage of Stevie Wonder’s closing set at Glastonbury pulled in a high of 1.7 million viewers at 10pm.

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.