TV Overnights: Misery in soap and football pulls in equal numbers for BBC One and ITV1
There is one name on the lips of bitter Irish people all across the globe this morning and that name is Fernando Torres. Always showing great optimism in the face of a dominant, more powerful Europe, the Irish fans believed the time was right to unleash the full fierce ability of the Republic of Ireland team.
But, no. Spain destroyed them. The second Euro 2012 game of the day went out on ITV1 at 7:45, with coverage beginning half an hour earlier. Spain’s Torres asserted his authority from the off, netting the first goal 4 minutes in. He stepped back for a while, allowing Silva and Fàbregas another two goals before hammering another nail in the coffin at 70 minutes, resulting in a 4-0 defeat for Ireland. The entire coverage attracted an average audience of 6.3 million, with viewers peaking at 8.3 million midway through the second half.
Earlier on BBC One the first Group C game was a slightly more even handed affair. Italy v Croatia kicked off at 5pm in Poland and the whole coverage pulled in an average audience of 4.6 million viewers. Pirlo took Italy into the lead in the 39th minute with the audience peaking at 6:30, just as Mandzukic scored an equalising goal for Croatia, bringing the game to a 1-1 draw. The whole event provided BBC One with a 30% audience share for 2 hours and 45 minutes.
The alarm bells must have been set off in the EastEnders compound last night as yet another character talked of leaving. So soon after Ian Beale wandered out of Albert Square via the M50 and Dot Cotton escaped under the chain link fence, Abi Branning was propositioned a way of out the vicious cycle of misery. Naturally her mother Tanya wanted her daughter to go to Costa Rica and escape by any means possible but Abi feared that her relationship with amazing catch Jay Mitchell wouldn’t survive the eight week trip.
The episode, which went out at 7:30pm, went up against the opening of the tragic Ireland game but held its corner – narrowly pulling in the largest average audience of the night. 6.6 million viewers watched as Abi’s window to vacate London’s most turbulent borough diminished, resulting in a 30% audience share.
In the 9pm slot BBC One opted for a repeat of the hugely successful first series of Call the Midwife to satisfy the baying crowd of viewers itching for the second series (or just something Downtony and nostalgic). Earlier in January, when the series debuted, it was safe to guess that nobody at the BBC could have predicted the response from the public – the first episode attracted an audience of nearly 10 million viewers.
Perhaps part of the instant success came hot on the heels of star Miranda Hart’s award winning sitcom Miranda. Moving the programme from the original 8pm slot and repeating the series so soon after it originally aired has no doubt affected interest, with the second episode pulling in a much smaller 2 million viewers (a 9% share). Fans will have to make do with another run of series one, as new episodes of vintage birthing fun aren’t due until summer 2013.
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.