Euro 2016 qualifier peaks at 6.2m as England defeats Switzerland
Tuesday night saw ITV offer up the majority of its evening schedule to the patriotic and football-inclined as the English team faced off against a cluster of mountain-dwelling foes in the latest Euro 2016 Qualifier (7:15pm).
Featuring half an hour of pre-match analysis and general all round guess work, the Group E qualifier actually kicked off at 7:45pm and was broadcast live from Wembley Stadium.
An average audience of 2.8 million viewers tuned in for those initial 30 minutes to catch the pearls of wisdom feverishly dispensed by Ian Wright and Lee Dixon, jumping all the way up to 5.3 million viewers for the first half an hour of the actual game.
In total, an average audience of 4.7 million viewers tuned in for the entire two hour 45 minutes of England v Switzerland coverage, resulting in a solid 24% share for ITV.
Viewers peaked in the final half hour of the game, with 6.2 million people watching as Harry Kane scored the first goal for England, falling to 4.9 million as Wayne Rooney secured England’s victory in the 84th minute.
As an alternative, BBC One offered up a night of procedural and easy-to-follow drama with a tag-team assault of medical drama Holby City (8pm) and New Tricks (9pm) securing a healthy audience.
[advert position=”left”]4 million viewers tuned in at 8pm to see former hospital CEO Guy Self get taken hostage by a bereaved widower and netted a 19% share, just about failing to take the 8pm slot away from ITV.
Speaking of bereaved widowers, the final ever New Tricks line-up were back at 9pm, with the fourth to last episode seeing the team looking into a 13-year-old double suicide involving celebrity lookalikes (!).
Despite possibly descending into Midsomer‘s dodgy territory, an audience of 4.5 million viewers tuned in to see Larry Lamb, Tamzin Outhwaite, Denis Lawson and Nicholas Lyndhurst work together to solve crimes, netting a 21% share and securing the 9pm slot for BBC One.
Over on BBC Two, Dave Myers and Si King continued on their latest excuse to get away from their respective missus with the second episode of The Hairy Bikers’ Northern Exposure (8pm).
Despite the misleading title, last night’s road trip didn’t see the hirsute food fans adventure around Ripon city centre, 1.8 million viewers (and a 9% share) watched as the pals cooked up a storm around Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
At 9pm wildlife presenter Liz Bonnin, actress Freida Pinto and mountaineer Jon Gupta concluded their look at India: Nature’s Wonderland, with the second episode securing 1.4 million viewers and a 7% share.
Over on Channel 4, a family that hadn’t cleaned their house for a decade invited in a national audience to gawp at their mess in the latest Obsessive Compulsive Cleaners (8pm) which was watched by 1.1 million viewers and a 5% share.
At 9pm Educating Cardiff focused on two very disruptive young girls, probably accentuating the situation slightly by giving them a national platform. 1.2 million viewers tuned in for the latest slice of disrupted lesson, tears and tantrum, resulting in a 6% share.
The misleadingly titled Baby Faced Brides aired at 8pm on Channel 5, with the documentary about grown adults getting hitched bringing in 521,000 viewers and a 3% share.
Afterwards in Celebrity Big Brother (9pm) that bloke who used to be in The Bill was evicted, probably just to get away from the mentally trying America faction, with 1.3 million viewers and a 6% share tuning in for the fun.
Way earlier, Emmerdale aired at the super unusual time of 6:45pm on ITV to make way for the football. 4.3 million viewers tuned in to see yesterday’s attempted mass murder plot play out, resulting in a 25% share.
Over on BBC One at 7:30pm, EastEnders offered viewers the chance to see Jane Beale break down crying for the 6000th time this year.
Tuesday’s biggest audience watched as Ian Beale did a runner with his sister-slaying murderous devil child (you couldn’t blame him really), with scenes of Jane offering herself up as a sacrifice to the law helping pull in 5.7 million viewers and a 28% 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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