TV Overnights: England’s Six Nations victory watched by 6.2m
Friday
As usual, Friday night belonged to the soaps with Coronation Street and EastEnders attracting the highest audiences of the weekend for their respective channels.
The weekend’s top audience peaked early with the first episode of Coronation Street (7:30pm, ITV1) bringing in the highest number of viewers across all channels. 8.7 million people (a 38.9% share) tuned in to watch the fall-out from Frank’s murder as Peter was taken in for questioning.
Afterwards BBC One witnessed its biggest weekend audience as EastEnders (8pm) attracted 7.5 million viewers . The episode, which saw Mandy confronting her mother over her drinking, secured an audience share of 32%.
The drama on the cobbles continued at 8:30pm as Coronation Street held onto a significant portion of the audience with a 36% share. The second episode was only down 100,000 viewers as Carla became the latest Cluedo character to be carted off by the police.
Afterwards ITV1 held onto the majority of the available audience thanks to Benidorm at 9pm. The episode, which was written by League of Gentlemen’s Steve Pemberton, was viewed by just over six million viewers (a 26.2% share).
Saturday
BBC One’s live rugby action coverage began at 2pm with Wales v Italy. The game kicked off at 2:30pm, with an average audience of 2.8 million viewers watching as the Welsh team destroyed Italy. The game, which ended in 24-3, scored an audience share of 26%. This was followed immediately afterwards by more Six Nations coverage as Ireland went head to head with Scotland, resulting in a 32-14 victory to Ireland. Although it attracted a higher audience than the earlier game, an average audience of 3.7 million viewers actually resulted in a lower audience share of 22%.
ITV1’s biggest audience of the day was provided by New You’ve Been Framed at 7pm. The clip show was watched by an average of 4.5 million people – 268,000 of those watching in high-definition.
The brand new series of The National Lottery: In It To Win It (BBC One, 8:30pm) brought in Saturday’s biggest audience with 5.5 million viewers. The show, hosted by Dale Winton, had a 24% audience share.
Meanwhile, dependable medical drama Casualty ruled the post-9pm schedule, bagging a 24% audience share and 5.1 million viewers.
Sunday
The Six Nations continued on BBC One on Sunday – with France v England kicking off at 3pm. An average audience of 4.4 million viewers watched the entire programme but interest peaked in the second half as 6.2 million people (a 40% share) watched England win by a narrow margin.
Countryfile followed on the same channel later, going up against Dancing on Ice (7:15pm) on ITV1. The agricultural current affairs programme secured BBC One’s biggest audience of the day with 6.3 million viewers and a 26% share. The skating competition scored slightly higher with 6.6 million viewers.
Over on BBC Two the final episode in Top Gear’s current series saw rock legend Slash pop in for a quick catch-up. The show was watched by an average of 4.2 million people – the channel’s largest audience of the weekend.
The final episode of the seventh series of Wild At Heart held onto a large amount of the post-Dancing on Ice audience with a total of 6.4 million viewers. Dancing on Ice: The Skate-Off followed but ITV1 couldn’t hold onto the large audience share. 23% of the available audience tuned in to see Alpine Ski Racer Chemmy Alcott perform – 1.3 million viewers less than the main show.
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.