ITV1 pulls off a peak run
ITV1 secured the highest ratings all evening yesterday with a peak run of Dancing on Ice, Wild at Heart, Piers Morgan’s Life Stories and the FA Cup Football Highlights.
Dancing on Ice, which saw the five remaining couples battle it out for a place in next weekend’s semi-final, attracted more than 10 million peak viewers and a 35.4% average audience share between 7.10pm and 8.15pm.
Wild at Heart sat in between the two Dancing on Ice programmes, pulling in 8 million average viewers and a 29.7% share, which went up again for Zoe Salmon’s exit from the popular celebrity ice-skating competition.
The Skate Off results show attracted 8.5 million viewers and a 33.4% share between 9.15pm and 10pm – peaking with 8.6 million viewers at 9.30pm, around the same time as Michael Jackson’s epic three and a half minute advert.
ITV ran an a special one-off ad to support sales of Jackson’s shows at the 02 Arena during the entire Dancing on Ice ad break.
Piers Morgan’s Life Stories followed the Skate Off with 5.2 million average viewers and a 28.5% share – the host interviewed Katie Price, the former glamour model who is also known as Jordan.
The commercial broadcaster also held on to the peak audience late in the evening with its FA Cup Football Highlights, covering the fifth round clash between Arsenal and Burnley and the sixth round match with Everton and Middlesborough.
Meanwhile, Saturday’s Live FA Cup coverage also secured respectable ratings for ITV1 – with Chelsea Vs Coventry City attracting 2.4 million average viewers and a 26.4% share from 12pm onwards and Fulham Vs Manchester United pulling in 4.7 million average viewers and a 26% share.
However, BBC One stole the show on Saturday evening with Let’s Dance for Comic Relief, which picked up more than 8 million viewers and a 35.1% share between 7.05pm and 8.20pm.
BBC One also had a good run on Friday night with QI, Not Going Out, BBC News and Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, managing to hold on to the peak audience from 9pm onwards.
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.