TV Overnights: England and Ireland’s big reunion peaks at 7.1 million on ITV
Yesterday’s premium top shelf content kicked off with Emmerdale at 7pm on ITV and garnered an impressive audience of 6.2 million viewers. The rural soap, which has recently been in serious danger of denting the BBC’s ego, secured a 32% share.
Straight up afterwards was half an hour of Adrian Chiles’ quality football banter as he hyped up yet more Live International Football (7:30pm). In fairness to Adrian, for once the game did have some significance as it was the first time the Republic of Ireland faced off against England since that match at Lansdowne Road in 1995.
Thankfully the English fans in Wembley had purged themselves of far right extremists and other clichéd ne’er do wellers, securely putting the friendly back into international friendly. With no riots kicking off and fanatical chanting absent, the symbolic get together turned out to be a pedestrian affair.
13 minutes after the 8pm kick off, Irish striker Shane Long secured the game’s first goal with Frank Lampard equalising 10 minutes later. That was when the audience interest hit its peak, rising to 7.1 million viewers.
Overall, 5.5 million viewers tuned in for the entire 2.5 hour running time which remained a 1-1 draw and resulted in a 20% share.
Over on BBC One at 7:30pm EastEnders was dealing with a grudge match of its own, going head to head with Adrian Chiles and Roy Keane’s blossoming friendship. The latest episode in the drama about silly people dealing with the silly self-perpetuated problems focused on sour trout Kirsty Branning as she continued to lie to her husband about being pregnant.
Despite going up against the football, the Walford soap still had the strength to pull in a slightly bigger audience than Emmerdale, outdoing its rival by a measly 43,000 people. 6.2 million viewers watched as Kirsty (who doesn’t really think her idiotic plans through) desperately attempted to get out of her baby scan.
The latest antics in the UK’s most dramatic school, Waterloo Road (BBC One), held the fort at 8pm and roped in a decent 14% share, which translated to 3 million viewers.
Over on BBC Two, Chris Packham, Michaela Strachan and the rest of the Cool Gang crawled around back gardens in North Face jackets to bring us the latest edition of Springwatch (7:30pm). The event show, based around an event that most people are convinced hasn’t actually happened yet, attracted 2.6 million viewers and a 12% share.
Though the football cast a shadow over the 9pm slot, Channel 4’s 24 Hours in A&E didn’t suffer too badly. 2.3 million viewers (a 10% share) delved through the corridors of King’s College Hospital, taking in the coma patients, terminal illnesses and strong reactions to face creams.
On BBC One at the same time was Frankie, a woman who appears to have walked straight out of a lame advertisement for yoghurt or upset stomach pills. She’s strong, gobby, has a zest for life, emotional and, best of all, knows her own mind.
Last night saw the boozy district nurse have her bubble burst as her capabilities were brought into question following the death of a patient. Ah well, nothing a slug of wine and a dance to a power pop song of the day won’t solve.
The third episode about the ‘lovable’ nurse brought in 3.4 million viewers (63% of whom were women) and a 15% share. This is down 35% from the first episode three weeks ago.
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.