I doubt it, they probably just thought there was an extra episode, it's a force of habit for most viewers to flick over, at least those who fester and watch soaps

mrs Ambassador still tuned in, saw the egg chasing and demanded that horrific southern toting sport be thrown off the television.

Presumably Children's Hospital got stellar ratings then?

Great match average figure - close to 7m is brilliant given the Corrie competition.

What was the full 7.30-10pm average?

Goodfigures for the rugby then, especially considering the much different demographics than BBC1 would normally get their Friday night viewing

people are strange.

Still quite good considering ITV1 is strong between 7 and 9 on a Friday, though I doubt many Corrie fans would switch over to watch T6NC. Maybe a live bingo contest as that seems to be one of their main interests.

I don't really get rugger, I'll admit. Yet the England team seems to be followed incredibly well, certainly has more crossover appeal then the football team at present, for various reasons. I do wonder if the rugby players were under the same media scrutiny as the football players, whether this would remain the same, also the fact that hardly anyone follows the club game, means it's not over-saturated. Success is a major factor too, in the World Cups.

Club football seems to be taking over in football terms, really think the friendly next week will rate very poorly.

6.6m was the 7.30-10pm average.

Why should demographic matter to BBC, it really shouldn't

Or creatures of habit.

That's staggering!

The match itself must have averaged well over 7m then!

Very good ratings for the rugby then, be interesting to see what the actual match average was.

A lot of match going fans may dislike Friday evening games, but the ratings like this are a real shot in the arm for the sport.

Its important that they appeal to all demographics, a lot of people who don't often watch BBC 1 would have been tuned into the rugby last night.

I suppose because rugby union isn't shown to the same extent on the televsion that the ratings are quite good, though it can never match football. However, club rugby union remains very much a minority sport and apart from internationals the sport attracts limited interest. I know the best gate a Zurich Premiership team can attract is about 10,000, a top football premiership side attracts five times that.

I really shouldnt find that funny.

well im a creature of habait, and an EE fan, but somewho I managed to avoid not turning the TV on at 8pm.

Since you post on a forum that is filled with advance schedule information and broadcasting news I'd hope you consider yourself better informed than the average viewer?

true of course.

I watched The Wright Stuff on Demand Five instead

Most people who attend bingo seem to be big fans of this soap for some reason.

maybe ITV should launch a Corrie themed bingo, which airs after Corrie on ITV 1 then.

Friday 4th February Overnights
BBC One
19:00- The One Show: 4.68m (20.9%)
19:30- Live Six Nations Rugby Union: 6.61m (27.0%)
* peak: 8.2m at 21:30
22:00- BBC News at Ten: 4.52m (21.6%)
22:35- The Graham Norton Show: 3.11m (18.9%)

BBC Two
20:00- Mastermind: 1.88m (7.7%)
20:30- Life in a Cottage Garden: 1.41m (5.8%) , +HD: 27k
21:00- Can't Take It With You: 1.43m (5.9%)
22:00- Fast and Loose: 1.39m (6.7%)

ITV1 (excluding HD)
19:00- Emmerdale: 7.32m (32.7%)
19:30- Coronation Street: 8.54m (35.1%)
20:00- Children's Hospital: 4.67m (19.1%)
20:30- Coronation Street: 6.77m (26.6%)
* 20:30-20:55: 7.33m (28.7%)
21:00- Comedy Rocks: 2.29m (9.5%)

Channel 4
20:00- Relocation: Phil Down Under: 1.79m (7.2%)
21:00- Embarrassing Bodies: 3.60m (14.9%)
22:00- The Million Pound Drop Live: 2.61m (14.2%)

Channel 5 (excluding HD)
20:00- Ice Road Truckers: 1.20m (4.8%)
21:00- The Mentalist: 1.21m (5.0%)
22:00- Law & Order: 1.04m (5.3%)

Wow - Coro #2 really tanked. Surprising, given it went head to head with the half time rugby waffle.

Be interesting to see if the rugby was ahead of Coro's 7.3m average at any point between 8.30 and 8.55.

Graham is really taking a hit from Million Pound Drop.

Really good rating for the Rugby there. ITV held up OK, but then obviously went down a hole as soon as Manford's face appeared on screen. Channel 4 did really well, 14% share over 2 and a half hours nearly in primetime is very good.

So Coronation Street was hurt by the rugby then. Awful 8.30pm figure for it and the 7.30pm slot didn't fare very well either considering even excluding HD and possibly +1. Emmerdale seemed to hit an average figure. Children's Hospital saw a boost without the soap competition. Comedy Rocks won't be touched again with a bargepole when this series comes to and end. All in all a poor night for ITV1.

But a great night for BBC1, which leads me to think that ITV may make a bid for the Six Nations when the current contract is up, though I have no idea when that is! The demos will have been much better for the rugby than the soap marathon.

Channel 5 had an excellent night; all hows above a million. For Channel 4, Embarrassing Bodies saw a very slight dip but should return to higher numbers next week. Still an excellent figure for it, though. I'm not sure what I expecteed for BBC2; at least all their shows easily broke the million mark.

Doesn';t Coronation Street usually get around 6.5m when it's against the charity marathons? And that's when more like 7.5m (on average) rather than 6.5m watch the other side. Thinking about it, I don't know how early Coronation Street finished last night; it may have been dragged down severely by the last fivbe minutes I guess.

I doubt ITV have the cash to make a serious bid for the 6Nations, especially because they're currently in an expensive FA contract. Also if they were to bid, they would need to take into account that their ratings for 6Nations would probably be 25% down from what the BBC are getting (similar to what's happened with the FA Cup games), partly because they don't have the multimedia resources to promote and hype up the event like the BBC can.


Embarrassing Bodies was up 0.1m from last week's comparable rating, so it did really well. Also, I could be wrong but that Million Pound Drop rating is perhaps its best ever... I can't remember it getting 2.5m+ on C4 alone before. It's doing really well this series and Fridays seem to be sorted for C4 for the next few weeks with the Em Bod/MPD combo.