TV Overnights: England’s rugby win scores high of 8.3m viewers

Live Six Nations Rugby dominated BBC One’s weekend ratings – with England v Scotland winning a high of more than 8.3 million viewers on Saturday afternoon.

The France v Italy game, on between 1.30pm and 4.30pm on Saturday, attracted 3.7 million peak viewers; while the Ireland v Wales match pulled in a high of 5.7 million viewers on Sunday afternoon.

BBC One secured the peak ratings for the majority of its weekend line-up. On Saturday, more viewers tuned in to BBC One than any other terrestrial channel for the full day, with the exception of one 30 minute slot, which saw ITV1’s Harry Hill take the crown (with 4.8 million peak viewers).

In the evening prime-time slots, The Magicians pulled in 4.9 million average viewers for BBC One, Casualty picked up 5.6 million viewers and Mrs Brown’s Boys 6.3 million average viewers. In the late night Saturday slot, Match of the Day peaked with 5.4 million viewers.

On Sunday evening, BBC One’s Call the Midwife proved a popular choice with more than 9.1 million viewers tuning in at around 8.30pm, however BBC One’s new Bomber Boys shared the peak-hour ratings with ITV1’s Wild at Heart and Dancing on Ice.

The first Dancing on Ice show banked a peak audience of more than 7.2 million viewers for ITV1 between 6.25pm and 8.30pm. Wild at Heart followed with 6.1 million peak viewers, before the Dancing on Ice Skate Off, which secured a high of 5.8 million viewers.

Frank Skinner’s Opinionated also won the peak ratings for BBC Two at 11.15pm with 1.1 million viewers, before viewers returned to BBC One for the Live Super Bowl. The American football match recorded an average audience of 936,000 on BBC One, peaking with 1.2 million viewers in the first fifteen minutes at 11pm.

Overall, an estimated 111 million viewers watched America’s most popular sporting event, according to The Telegraph. However, full Post-match viewing data is expected from NBC and NFL, including second screen activity (how many fans tuned in, on what device, for how long and which advertisements they saw).

Meanwhile, ITV1’s Saturday night schedule featured Take Me Out (4.4 million average viewers); The Jonathan Ross Show with guests including David Beckham (3.5 million); and The Talent Show Story (1.7 million).

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.