TV Overnights: Netherlands v Germany peaks at 10.8m

Last night’s Euro 2012 coverage suffered the Judgement of Solomon and was once again split between the two main stations, after an ITV-only night on Monday. Tuesday brought Group D’s second round of matches with things kicking off at the Arena Lviv in Western Ukraine.The Denmark v Portugal game started off at 5pm on ITV and was preceded by half an hour of analysis.

An average audience of 4 million viewers watched the entire coverage with attention peaking 30 minutes into the second half at 6 million viewers. The game, which saw Portugal win 3-2 despite some serious drive from Bendtner, pulled in an audience share of 28%

It was straight over to BBC One afterwards as Alan’s Hansen and Shearer were on hand to guide us through Netherlands v Germany pre-match scrutiny. After 45 minutes of a good old natter and a cup of tea the game finally kicked off at 7:45pm with the second game of the day pulling in a much healthier average audience of 7 million viewers 9 (a 31% share). The first half saw Mario Gómez secure two goals for Germany. The final fifteen minutes of the match saw a surge of interest with the viewing public as Netherlands’s Van Persie brought the final score to 2-1. In these closing moments attention peaked at whopping 10.8 million viewers and momentarily brought the audience share up to an impressive 38%.

Up against the colossal match, was indie drama Coronation Street on ITV. Last night the producers missed a golden opportunity for wish fulfilment on a national scale: Simon Barlow made it out of his booze hell pretty much unscathed. The episode, which went out at 7:30pm, saw the eight year old recover from his drink binge with nothing to complain about apart from a dodgy tummy.

Sticking with the random Solomon reference; as Peter and Leanne continued to bicker over Simon’s custody, Ken’s grandson was given the opportunity to choose which parent he wanted to live with. 6.9 million viewers tuned in to see Simon make his decision to leave his father’s flat to go and live with his ex-step mum. Unfortunately, as Leanne lives on the exact same tiny street, Weatherfield’s tiniest booze hound won’t be going anywhere too far. You’d think reformed alcoholic Peter would have more sense than to send his drunky spawn off to live in a pub. Although the soap attracted a higher average audience share (32%), the Germany game just narrowly past the soap to become Wednesday’s most watched programme.

Over on Channel 4 at 9pm was 24 Hours in A&E, the spiritual successor to One Born Every Minute. The hidden camera show, which is much easier explained with the alternative title ‘Awful, Bad Things Happening To Strangers‘, scored a 10% audience share. The documentary, which bagged the channel’s biggest audience of the day, tells the tale of an average day in a South London emergency ward. Last night brought us such harrowing cases as the young man who got crushed in a barge and a terminal cancer patient who collapsed at home. Although the programme struggled in the first half while the German game was wrapping up, viewers peaked half an hour in helping the documentary secure an average audience of 2.5 million.

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.