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TV Overnights: ITV1’s soap line up pulls the early evening ratings from the football

TV Overnights: ITV1’s soap line up pulls the early evening ratings from the football

Coronation Street - The Rovers Return Public House

The soaps managed to distract viewers away from the World Cup once again last night, although this time it was ITV1’s turn to take the glory.

ITV1’s Thursday night soap line-up, which included two episodes of Emmerdale as well as a 30-minute trip to Coronation Street, secured the highest ratings during the early evening prime time slots, despite competition from BBC One’s Match of the Day Live: Denmark v Japan game.

The first episode of Emmerdale attracted more than 5.4 million viewers and a 29.7% share from 7pm, banking the peak audience share ahead of BBC One’s football coverage, which started with 3.1 million viewers at 7pm.

However, BBC One managed to steal the peak ratings for a 30-minute break between the first and second Emmerdale.  Over 4.8 million viewers tuned in to the World Cup between 8pm and 8.30pm, while ITV1’s William and Harry – the Brother Princes programme peaked with a lower 4.2 million viewers.

Viewers switched back to ITV1 for the second episode of Emmerdale at 8pm though, and stayed with the channel for a full hour.  The second part picked up an equal 5.4 million peak viewers and a 25.6% share between 8pm and 8.30pm, before Coronation Street secured a high of more than 6.5 million viewers and a 28.4% share between 8.30pm and 9pm.

However, the football banked the peak audience from 9pm onwards.  The Japan v Denmark match, which ended 3-1 to Japan, pulled in over 5.8 million peak viewers at 9pm, but settled on a 22.2% average share overall.

Elsewhere during the 9pm to 10pm peak-hour, ITV1’s Taggart picked up 2.5 million viewers, while Channel 4’s Big Brother continued with 2 million average viewers.  BBC Two’s second Gareth Malone Goes to Glyndebourne pulled in a lower 1.7 million viewers, while Five’s 9 o’clock film Before You Go secured 918,000 viewers.

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.

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