TV Overnights: GB goes Olympomania while non-sport alternatives fight for attention
Friday
On Friday there was the small matter of London 2012’s opening ceremony, which attracted an astonishing peak viewing figure of 26.7 million and an average of 22.3 million viewers (82.5% share) for BBC One.
Both Danny Boyle’s spectacle and TV viewing figures reached the high expectations set by many.
At its peak at 9.50pm, viewers were in for a treat when they got to see world famous Mr Bean play an instrumental part in the London Symphony Orchestra’s rendition of Chariots of Fire. Simultaneously, Mr Bean became the most tweeted name on Twitter as it trended worldwide. The Olympics has been mentioned by more than 10 million Twitter users since Friday.
It should also be noted that the event was viewed live by 80,000 lucky people inside the Olympic stadium.
Despite the outrageous four billion global viewing figure predicted by some tabloid newspapers, or cleverly dubbed “8 billion eyes” by the Daily Mail, the BBC’s coverage was still by far the most-watched opening ceremony by a UK audience, beating Barcelona’s in 1992, which managed 11.3 million viewers.Time differences between host countries is said to be the main reason for lower viewing figures.
Perhaps even more staggering than these numbers was the fact that 20 million viewers were still tuned it at half past midnight, which should be credited to Boyle’s creativity and ability to keep viewers glued to the TV with surprise after surprise.
The peak figure of 26.7 million viewers still falls short of the all-time biggest ever audience in the UK for a single programme, which belongs to EastEnders on 25 December 1986 (30.5 million). However, that figure was compiled differently at the time.
On Friday night Coronation Street managed to hold its loyal viewers even throughout the Olympic storm with an average of 6.2 million viewers
Saturday
Even after the late night on Friday, viewers were still eager to catch all of the Olympics on Saturday – right from early morning. BBC One attained total domination throughout the day as it broadcast the best of live sports.
It ranged from women’s shooting to rowing and swimming in the morning, with average figures of 3.5 million viewers and spiked towards the end of Mark Cavendish’s attempt at a medal in the men’s cycle road race at 3.30pm with a peak figure of 5.7 million.
Viewing figures started peaking at 7pm as the giants of swimming battled it out in the Aquatics Centre (8.4 million peak and 40.5% share).
The figures show that Great Britain has truly got Olympomania with sport dominating our viewing habits – a clear suggestion of things to come over the next two weeks.
ITV’s non-sport alternative dosage of Midsomer Murders reached an average of 2.1 million viewers with a 10.2% share, which is its highest figure for a weekend showing, beating 2.05 million on Sunday 12 June 2011, but still falls short of its highest figure ever recorded (6.91 million on Wednesday 1 February 2012).
Sunday’s ratings to follow….
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.