ITV announced it dominated mass live viewing the weekend of April 20-21 across Entertainment, Sport and Drama, including the 17th series launch of “Britain’s Got Talent” on both Saturday and Sunday evenings watched by 12 million across the weekend; The FA Cup semi-final on Sunday afternoon, which peaked with 7.1M viewers making it ITV's second highest overnight this year after the quarter-final match last month; plus brand new and exclusive drama launch “Red Eye” on Sunday evening. Moreover, the company stated that, across the 16 Saturday nights in 2024 so far, ITV has won 11 including this weekend.
Made by Thames, a Fremantle label, more than 12 million people tuned into the first two launch episodes of “Britain’s Got Talent”. Episode 1 peaked with 5.8 million viewers (5M in average) with a 39% share and has consolidated up to 6.2M. With episode 2 peaking at 5.2M (4.5M in average) and a 32% share. 16-34 viewing across both episodes is strong with the first episode attracting a 49% share and in 1 day consolidating to 732K, plus 547k peak (442K in average) and a 45% share for episode 2. In addition, the show’s content created for socials has so far garnered 25 million video views.
For sport, The FA Cup semi-final between Manchester United and Coventry peaked with 7.1M (averaging 4.4M) and a 41% share, which is ITV's second highest overnight this year after the quarter-final match on March 17.
For drama, “Red Eye” with Jing Lusi and Richard Armitage launched with a peak of 4.1M (averaging 3.7M). Based on overnights alone this makes it ITV's third biggest drama this year after Mr Bates vs The Post Office and Vera.
Finally, the company shared that “Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway” final has also currently consolidated to 5.9M, up on last year’s final, with the series winning its time slot every weekend bar one.