TV Overnights: Over 17m England fans tune in to ITV1 for the first big game, although 1.5m miss the goal

England’s first World Cup game against the USA secured an impressive high of more than 17.6 million viewers for ITV1 on Saturday evening.

However, 1.5 million of them are bound to be unhappy with the ITV1 HD coverage after a “human error” meant that viewers were watching a car advert instead of Steven Gerrard’s goal in the 4th minute of the match.

The broadcaster offered an “unreserved apology” to the viewers affected by the interruption on its high-definition channel, which accounted for around 9% of the total audience.

Gerrard’s early goal proved to be the only one of the match for England.  The game, which finally ended with a 1-1 draw, pulled in more than 11.9 million average viewers and a 50.9% audience share for ITV1 between 6.15pm and 9.45pm.

James Corden’s World Cup Live followed with 6 million peak viewers and a 25% share.  The new post-match magazine show will run for 14 episodes during the World Cup 2010.

Unsurprisingly, the football dominated the weekend ratings, with ITV1’s coverage of the South Korea v Greece match picking up 3.6 million peak viewers early on Saturday, and the Argentina v Nigeria game pulling in a high of 5.8 million viewers for BBC One on Saturday afternoon.

On Sunday, sport fans were spoilt for choice with three World Cup games and the Canadian Grand Prix.  BBC One’s Algeria v Slovenia coverage attracted 4 million peak viewers, while highs of 7.4 million viewers tuned in to the channel for the Formula 1.

Over on ITV1, the Serbia v Ghana match banked 4.4 million peak viewers, before the Germany v Australia game secured 8.2 million peak 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.