TV Overnights: Eurovision attracts biggest audience in 10 years with 12.6m

An impressive 12.6 million peak viewers tuned in to BBC One on Saturday night for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest to see the battle between Blue and Jedward play out.

It was the night Britain fell back in love with Eurovision, virtually doubling last year’s audience – which went largely unnoticed with a low 5.5 million viewers.

This year’s coverage, presented by Graham Norton, attracted an average audience of 9.5 million average viewers and a 40.4% share from 8pm onwards – the contest’s highest ratings for more than 10 years.

Eurovision‘s closest ratings in the last 10 years came in 2007, when the programme secured 8.7 million viewers.

Although Blue and Jedward failed to make it in to this year’s top three, one of the winners (from Azerbaijan) lives in London and British connections popped up throughout the night – the Romanian entry was led by a man from County Durham and a rapper from Greece is also a lecturer at the University of Westminster.

The X Factor duo Jedward claimed eighth place for Ireland, ahead of UK entry Blue, which came in 11th place. Eurovision‘s global audience is thought to be around 100 million.

Over on ITV1, Britain’s Got Talent managed a lower 7.9 million peak viewers and a 29.5% audience share during the Saturday night 8pm to 9pm slot. Piers Morgan’s Life Stories: John Prescott followed with a fairly low 2.6 million peak viewers and a 8.9% share.

However, the Live FA Cup Final banked the afternoon ratings for ITV1 – peaking with 6.7 million viewers. The Stoke City v Manchester City match pulled in 3.6 million average viewers and a 30% audience share between 1pm and 5.30pm.

On Sunday, BBC One’s Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl picked up 7.2 million peak viewers and a 27.9% average audience share between 8pm and 10.10pm. The channel dominated most of the daytime ratings  with its morning line-up, Eastenders omnibus and Countryfile.

However, BBC Two’s Live MotoGP proved a popular choice in the 12.30pm to 2pm slot, peaking with 1.3 million viewers; while ITV1’s Britain’s Got Talent rerun attracted 1.6 million viewers between 3.10pm and 4.10pm.

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.