TV Overnights: Spanish victory peaks at 13m for BBC One
After a deluge of group and then quarter-final matches, the competition was finally whittled down to the top four teams in the Euro 2012 tournament. Last night brought the first semi-final as Portugal and Spain faced off against one another for a place in the final on the first of July. The Portuguese team were confident after winning their last three matches, but defending champions Spain put up a good defence. Coverage for Portugal v Spain started at 7pm with the game kicking off 45 minutes later. 8.8 million viewers tuned in to watch the entire programme, providing a 39% audience share for BBC One.
After 90 minutes of play produced no goals the game went into extra time which generated the same result. Finally the game went into penalties and audience interest surged to 13 million (56% share) as a result. Once again the Spanish side emerged victorious from the shoot-out, securing their place in Sunday’s final.
Meanwhile in soap land everyone was in shock as Leanne announced that she was back with Nick. Her maternal mother had no choice but to ask Leanne to pack her bags and move out of the Rovers, doing little to heal their rift. Seriously, though – you wait your whole life, wading through mental storyline after mental storyline, hoping for your mother to show up and when she finally does…it turns out to be Cindy Beale with a well-dodgy accent. Disappointing.
The drama was affected slightly by the big game with a slightly fewer than usual 6.8 million viewers tuning in to see Leanne and Nick’s relationship speeding up a little quicker than planned as she moved in with him, capturing a 32% share. That will end well, probably.
If we’ve learned anything over the last few weeks it’s that while repeats of TV detective shows aren’t a fair match against the strength of Euro 2012‘s pull, they do offer an easy alternative. The logic seems to be the more random a series the repeat is pulled from the more the anti-football audience will be enticed to watch. Walford and Weatherfield have nothing on the hazardous county of Midsomer – you’re guaranteed someone will be lying face down in their Azaleas by the first ad break. The episode from the 14th series of Midsomer Murders (ITV1, 8pm) attracted a decent audience despite the dramatic tension over on BBC One. 3.5 million viewers watched as a young lady was dispatched in a bath tub and nervous Little Mo and Rosemary or Thyme from Rosemary & Thyme popped up as suspects.
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.