TV Overnights: EastEnders beats ITV’s Euro 2012 coverage
Tuesday night saw ITV take full reign of the Euro 2012 Group A games with Matt Smith (not the 11th Doctor) kicking off analysis at 4:30pm. 3.7 million viewers watched the entire two and a half hour coverage with the first match, Greece v Czech Republic, starting at 5pm.
The Czech team spent little time showing their drive with Jiracek securing the first goal three minutes in, followed three minutes later by team mate Pilar. The audience peaked at 4 million viewers 30 minutes into the game, securing an average share of 25% for the entire broadcast. A goal for Greece from Gekas in the 53rd minute brought a final score of 2-1 victory for the Czech Republic.
After a 20 minute spell of pointless non-football activity (regional news followed by ITV News and Weather) viewers were upgraded to business-class presenter Adrian Chiles. After 35 minutes of chatting Poland v Russia kicked off at 7:45pm live from National Stadium in Warsaw.
There was tension in and outside of the stadium and despite being on their opponents home turf, Russia scored the first goal 37 minutes in. An average audience of 5.7 million watched the entire programming which peaked at 7.5 million half an hour into the second half. In the 57th minute Blaszczykowski helped Poland equalise, resulting in a 1-1 all draw.
The spirit of forgiveness was truly alive in EastEnders (BBC One) last night despite Christmas being so far away. Tanya Jessop must have been visited by the ghost of plotlines past as the chemistry between herself and ex-husband Max Branning reached levels of passion usually reserved for post 9pm programming.
The episode which went out at 7:30pm attracted the night’s largest average audience (6.5 million) and saw the star-crossed lovers embrace passionately before Tanya proposed. All this despite previously attempting to bury Max alive and enduring his countless affairs (the extra marital activity with his son’s bi-polar fiancée took the biscuit, though). A 30% audience share saw Max apparently displaying more intelligence than Tanya and put the offer in his ‘to do’ folder.
The freak show that is the Embarrassing Bodies brand has really taken things to another level with the new iteration Embarrassing Bodies: Live from the Clinic (Channel 4). Safe under the ‘educational’ tag, Embarrassing Bodies has been showing us the dangly and bumpy bits belonging to members of the suspiciously willing public and airs before the watershed at 8pm; last night’s instalment secured a 7% share.
The new format is a bit like the awkward Going Live! phone-in section but along with conversation disrupting time delays we now have webcams and obese people showing us their armpit infections. 1.6 million people tuned in for the second episode of the series, featuring a disturbingly excited Dr Dawn Harper beaming with more exhilaration with each flash of infested flesh.
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.