TV Overnights: A peak of 14.7m viewers watch first England game of Euro 2012
Monday brought another round of Euro 2012 games with Group D stepping into the spotlight. First up was the match the country has really been waiting for, as England faced-off against France live from glamorous Donetsk in Eastern Ukraine. Adrian Chiles brought us pre-match commentary for France v England an hour beforehand at 4pm on ITV1 with the game kicking off at 5pm. An impressive average audience of 8.9 million people tuned in for the entire coverage from 4pm to 7:30pm, with 1.9 million of those catching the action on ITV1 HD.
A huge audience of 12.3 million were watching at 5pm as Joleon Lescott scored the first goal of the match. Sadly, the same amount of people saw France’s Samir Nasri equalise only nine minutes later. Viewers peaked half an hour before the final whistle attracting a whopping 14.7 million viewers according to official 15 minute peak figures (a 59% share of the audience), with each side eager for another crack at the net that didn’t come. ITV report that viewers peaked at 15.6 million, according to unofficial five-minute peak figures.
The second match of the day brought a more sedate crowd as Ukraine v Sweeden couldn’t bring the excitement of the earlier game. Gone were the adverts and Chiles as the Group D game jumped over to BBC One. Gary Lineker provided the build-up banter for 45 minutes with kick-off at 7:45pm. A confident Ukraine made their European Championship debut and secured a 2-1 win against Sweden. The game brought an average audience of 5.3 million who stayed tuned for the three hour running time, with interest peaking at 7 million viewers in the last fifteen minutes.
The first Monday of a full week back to the normal routine was rough on us all but last night in an hour-long Coronation Street (ITV1, 8pm) Simon Barlow took things to an extreme. Yesterday must have seen a disproportionate amount of boozing for a Monday but Weatherfield’s tiny tyrant partied as if the England team had won their game. Not being able understand the term moderation, let alone spell it, Simon found a bottle of wine after skipping school and knocked it all back. 7.9 million people watched as Peter discovered his seven year old son unconscious on the sofa, resulting in a 31% share.
Meanwhile, on the flipside of reality all your favourite characters got together for the Made in Chelsea: End of Season Party over on E4 at 10pm. Spencer, Binky, Dinky and La-La all gathered together to reflect on a tumultuous third series and share with us, their adoring public, what exactly they’ve learned in Dubai, Italy and dull old Chelsea. 549,000 viewers survived an hour of meta navel gazing, grabbing a 3% audience 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.