TV Overnights: BBC 1, ITV 0
There was simply no escaping sporting coverage this weekend. Wimbledon supplied a number of dramatic twists and turns and Euro 2012 finally bowed out, as Spain once again ran off with the trophy. The real victory, however, belonged to the BBC.
Friday
Friday night saw the soaps battle it out against the non-stop ferocious grunting of Wimbledon 2012. There was no escaping the court side action with continuous coverage across the two BBC terrestrial channels from 11:30am on Friday morning, with tennis fans switching back and forth, adding to the authentic experience. The earlier games on BBC Two captured 615,000 viewers for the four hour running time. BBC One’s coverage began at 1:45pm and overlapped with its sister channel for two hours, with the programme on the flagship channel pulling in a bigger audience of 1.9 million viewers, resulting in a 20% share.
It was straight back over to BBC Two at 5:45pm but this time the audience was building. An average audience of 2.5 million watched another night of drama on Centre Court as Roger Federer took on childhood friend Julien Benneteau. The audience soared to 4.3 million viewers as the Swiss star made a dramatic comeback, netting an impressive 19% audience share for BBC Two.
The tennis action distracted slightly from the usual flurry of dramatic soap action, each attracting a slightly smaller audience than usual. EastEnders (BBC One) scored a decent audience share of 31%, with the mockney festival pulling in 6.7 million viewers at 8pm. Up in Weatherfield there was a right old carry-on as Craig’s pet rat escaped into the bowels of the Rovers Return and happened to coincide with a visit from a bizarre looking health inspector. 6.8 million viewers (a 34% share) watched the first episode of Coronation Street (ITV1, 7:30pm) as Sunita and Eva moved further into the realms of pantomime. An hour later the tennis match was heating up and the soap saw a dip in audience, with 6.3 million viewers (28% audience share) returning for a second helping.
Unsurprisingly the Wimbledon 2012 highlights on BBC One at 9pm attracted the biggest tennis related audience of the day, with 5 million viewers tuning for analysis with Sue Barker.
Later on, Channel 5 saw the return of one of its most prestigious imports. The latest tool-for-hire to be selected for the charming new series of The Bachelor (10pm) was Made In Chelsea‘s Spencer Matthews. The cad about town (who is heir to a turkey fortune, knicker factory, biscuit company or something) is for some reason so desperate for our love and attention that quality isn’t part of the battle plan. ‘Spence’, who mistakes grinning like a goon for charisma, attracted 770,000 viewers on Friday night. This proved even less popular than fellow simpleton Gavin Henson’s search for ‘love’ down 590,000 viewers from last year’s debut.
Saturday
Saturday brought another day of relentless Wimbledon 2012 action and once again the BBC was all over it. Earlier in the day BBC Two coverage attracted at peak of 1.1 million viewers while BBC One coverage hit a height of 8 million around 10:45pm. Andy Murray faced off against Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis in another epic game, with the Scotsman finally landing at 11:05pm. While the tennis match attracted a peak share of 42% the rival channels did their best to attract weary viewers to their side. The tournament owned Saturday with little else even coming close to attracting similar amount of viewers.
ITV offered up family-friendly fare in the evening slot with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (7:30pm). The fifth film in the franchise, which finally sees our eponymous hero ditch his misguided indie-bob, break a few rules and generally grow a pair, attracted an average audience of 2.4 million viewers. Meanwhile over on Channel 4 the two hour-plus Avengers Assemble advertorial that is Iron Man pulled in a decent 1.2 million viewers. It was a lot worse over on Channel Five as less than 1 million people showed up for the Saturday night party at Big Brother‘s house.
Sunday
There was only one event on Sunday that mattered – after weeks of build-up the final game of Euro 2012 finally arrived. It’s hard to believe it has only been three weeks but omnipresent sporting events will have that effect on the viewer. In fairness, the qualifying stages began in August 2010, helping make sense of the Euro fatigue some of us might be experiencing. After group matches, quarter-finals and semi-finals the teams were whittled down to Spain and Italy. Spain have held the cup for the last two tournaments in a row and wasted no time taking control of the game with Silva netting the first goal 14 minutes in.
While the nation was transfixed by the clash between the two teams, a heftier battle was shaping up between the BBC and their main commercial rival ITV. The Treaty of Versailles states that both sides can air the final after sharing broadcasting duties throughout the tournament. The viewing nation made their choice, leaving the ITV1 coverage behind in the dirt. Both programmes offered 45 minutes of pre-match guess work with BBC One attracting 10 million viewers for the entire game. Compare this to ITV1’s embarrassing 1.7 million viewers and it’s a wonder that no one decided to go with a rerun of Midsomer Murders instead.
A repeat of the detective show would have almost guaranteed a bigger audience than the finale of Euro 2012. Match of the Day Live: Spain v Italy peaked at 13.2 million viewers (a 49% share), significantly less than the tournament’s peak; 22 million viewers watched England go home last Sunday. There must be some serious red faces this Monday at ITV HQ as their coverage peaked at 2 million viewers (an 8% audience share), despite the magical combination of Adrian Chiles’s detachment and Roy Keane’s seething anger.
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.