ITV’s football coverage triumphs with over 9.5m viewers

ITV1’s UEFA Champions League Live coverage pulled in the highest ratings last night with more than 9.5 million peak viewers after 9pm.

The explosive second-leg tie between Chelsea and Liverpool, which has been dubbed ‘the game of the season’, attracted more than 7.4 million average viewers and an impressive 31.2% audience share.

Elsewhere, the third in the new six-part BBC One series – All the Small Things – with Sarah Lancashire and Neal Pearson, pulled in 4.8 million peak viewers and a 17.5% share during the all-important 9pm to 10pm peak-hour.

At the same time, Five’s long-running CSI: Crime Scene Investigation picked up more than 2.7 million peak viewers, while Channel 4’s documentary The Hospital attracted 2.8 million.

Unusually, the soaps failed to score the overall highest ratings last night but Eastenders did manage to attract more than 8.2 million peak viewers and a fairly high 37.1% share between 7.30pm and 8pm, which secured BBC One with the peak audience during the first half an hour of ITV1’s big match.

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.