TV Overnights: ITV1’s National Television Awards takes the spotlight with 7.8m viewers

ITV1’s coverage of The National Television Awards stole the show last night with more than 7.8 million peak viewers.

The15th star-studded ceremony, hosted by Dermot O’Leary from London’s 02 arena, saw individual awards go to Eastenders’ Lacey Turner, David Tennant, Ant & Dec, and Stephen Fry.

More than 7.3 million average viewers and a 29.5% audience share tuned in to see coverage of the event between 7.30pm and 10pm, which also included awards for Gavin & Stacey, The X Factor, Coronation Street, Doctor Who and Loose Women.

The awards ceremony pushed ITV1 well ahead of its rival terrestrial channels during last night’s peak-time line-up.  BBC One’s Match of the Day Live, which broadcast the Aston Villa v Blackburn Rovers semi-final second-leg match, pulled in 4.3 million viewers and a 17.2% share between the same 7.30pm and 10pm time-slot.

Meanwhile, Channel 4’s new Relocation Relocation series, with Kirstie Allsopp and Phil Spencer,  returned with a high of 2.7 million viewers and a 4.4% average audience share between 8pm and 9pm, followed by Gordon’s Great Escape‘s 1.9 million viewers and a 7.8% share between 9pm and 10pm.

Five’s ever-popular NCIS managed to pip Channel 4 in the 9pm to 10pm peak-hour with 2.1 million peak viewers and a 7.8% average share.  However, Gordon’s Great Escape sat ahead of BBC Two’s new Horizon: Pill Poppers documentary, which picked up 1.8 million average viewers and a 7.1% audience share.

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.