ITV’s The Premiership Fails To Score

ITV’s bid to bring football to Saturday evenings was shown the yellow card this weekend after its highlights show, The Premiership, was beaten in the ratings by a special edition of the BBC’s The Weakest Link.

ITV’s version of Match Of The Day, which was shown for the first time at 7pm on Saturday, failed to score with viewers, attracting an audience of 4.3 million and a 23% share of viewing, compared to 6.7 million and a 38% share for The Weakest Link on BBC1.

The 7pm showing of the programme attracted around 300,000 more viewers than Match Of The Day‘s average in its last season on BBC1, but only 1.1 million football fans tuned into the second showing later in the evening.

ITV’s decision to show the football highlights programme in the early evening slot (see ITV Brings Sport To Saturday Evenings) marked a departure from the channel’s usual Saturday night line up of family entertainment and audience figures were well down on the usual 8 million average attracted by shows like Blind Date and Stars In Their Eyes.

ITV’s £183m investment in the rights to show Premier League match highlights could prove a costly one for the channel which unveils its autumn schedule this week.

ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.co.uk

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