TV Overnights: England v Italy scores a high of 6.7m viewers

England’s 19-15 win over Italy attracted a peak audience of 6.7 million viewers for BBC One on Saturday afternoon.

The Six Nations game secured almost five million average viewers and a 30.5% audience share during the full 3.30pm to 6pm Saturday afternoon slot, while the Wales v Scotland match banked 4.3 million average viewers and a 27.2% share on Sunday afternoon.

BBC One dominated the majority of the weekend ratings, once again. On Saturday, the channel only lost out to ITV1 for 60 minutes during the early evening slots.

ITV1 enjoyed the top ratings for the second half of You’ve Been Framed (4.9m peak viewers) and the majority of Harry Hill’s TV Burp (4.7m). The popular dating show Take Me Out also banked the peak ratings at 8.30pm with 4.8 million viewers.

Aside from that, BBC One’s ratings run was fairly consistent throughout the day, peaking with the England v Italy game in the afternoon slot, then again with Casualty during prime time. Winter Wipeout pulled in 4.7 million peak viewers; The Magicians 5m: The National Lottery 5.9m; Casualty 6m; and Match of the Day 5.4m.

On Sunday, viewers tuned in to BBC One for Breakfast, Match of the Day, The Andrew Marr Show and The Big Questions, before Country Tracks, Sunday Politics and Bargain Hunt. BBC One enjoyed an un-interupted peak run until 2pm when ITV1’s Columbo took over with 1.2 million viewers.

From 2.30pm onwards, BBC One claimed the top spot again with the Six Nations Rugby, Songs of Praise, Antiques Roadshow and BBC News.

In the evening slots, Countryfile pulled in 7.5 million peak viewers and Call the Midwife picked up a high of 8.7 million viewers for BBC One. However, the first hour of the BAFTAs lost out to ITV1’s Wild at Heart and Dancing on Ice: The Skate Off.

The first Dancing on Ice secured a peak audience of 6.9 million viewers; Wild at Heart 5.9m and The Skate Off 5.4m.

The BAFTAs, meanwhile, peaked with 5.7 million viewers at 10pm. 2012 winners included The Artist (Best Film), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Outstanding British Film), Jean Dujardin (Leading Actor) and Meryl Streep (Leading Actress).

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.