England defeat pulls in a peak of 11 million viewers on ITV
Saturday’s big Rugby World Cup game brought in a massive amount of televisual spectators as England clashed with Australia in the latest Pool A clash on ITV.
Coverage started at 7:15pm on Saturday evening, with the game kicking off properly at 8pm, live from Twickenham Stadium in London.
An average audience of just under 8 million viewers tuned in to see the clans angrily fight to the very end, peaking at just under 11 million viewers around 9:30pm as England’s World Cup dreams were smashed to smithereens.
The mammoth event secured the biggest audience of the entire weekend, with an average audience share of 37% tuning in for the entire coverage.
Over on BBC One, the new series of Strictly Come Dancing (6:20pm) continued to fight its corner, hoping that there would be at least some people who wanted their Saturday night entertainment a little more sparkly.
7.9 million viewers watched as the 15 couples danced about for two hours and five minutes, resulting in a 38% share.
Afterwards, Doctor Who‘s current bad streak continued, punished by some ill-advised scheduling decisions. The third episode in the current series only managed to secure 3.7 million viewers and a 16% share, hardly highlighting the international popularity of one of the BBC’s flagship shows.
Sunday brought another bout of Strictly Come Dancing‘s (7:15pm) foxtrotting and salsaing, albeit in a much shorter format. The 45 minute catch up and results show secured a slightly smaller audience of 7.7 million viewers and a 24% share.
On ITV, it was time for The X Factor (7pm) to roll out the dreaded Six Chair Challenge, a particularly cruel game of musical chairs that’s been added in recent years to jazz things up, as ever, with the contestants dreams at stake.
7.1 million viewers tuned in for two hours of swaparoo with the hopefuls’ sanity, resulting in a 31% share.
Over on BBC One, Antiques Roadshow continued to perform admirably, with 5.5 million viewers and a 24% share.
[advert position=”left”]At 9pm there was a complete change of tone as the channel launched a new four part psychological drama in the form of From Darkness. 4.1 million viewers watched Anne-Marie Duff take on the role of a haunted ex-police officer who was dragged out of her idyllic life when bodies related to an old case began surfacing.
The tension-filled atmospheric drama managed to secure an 18% share for the channel.
There was plenty of tension happening over on ITV as it was time for Downton Abbey (9pm) to host a wedding where Mr Carson and Mrs Hughes finally got it on.
An audience of 7 million viewers watched as Lady Edith got proper modern and edited a magazine all by herself, resulting in a 31% share.
Over on Channel 4, it was time for Shane Meadows to wrap up his This is England odyssey after one film and three miniseries.
The final episode of This is England ’90 (9pm) brought the entire story full circle and pitted Milky against Combo, bringing in a little over 1 million viewers and a 5% 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. Overnight data supplied by TRP are based on 15 minute slot averages. This may differ from tape checked figures, which are based on a programme’s actual start and end time.
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