ITV's live coverage of Manchester United being knocked out of the Champions League by Real Madrid, after a controversial red card left Sir Alex Ferguson raging, attracted an average of nearly 10 million viewers on Tuesday night.
It was the most-watched Champions League match on ITV since the 2008 final in which Manchester United beat Chelsea on penalties. The epic final of five years ago had a live match average of 11.1 million viewers with a five-minute peak of 14.6 million.
Full coverage of Manchester United's 2-1 defeat in the last 16 second-leg tie, which saw the Old Trafford side exit 3-2 on aggregate, had an average of 9 million viewers, a 35.2% share, between 7.30pm and 10pm.
The game had a five-minute peak of 10.96 million viewers, averaging 9.8 million viewers during the course of the match itself, which kicked off at 7.45pm.
Tuesday's hotly anticipated tie between two of the world's biggest football clubs outscored the live match average of 8.2 million viewers (and 10.6 million peak) who watched Chelsea's penalty shootout win in the final of last year's Champions League on Saturday 19 May.
Despite the big audience, ITV bosses will be bemoaning the exit of another British side from the Champions League with only Arsenal left in this year's competition. Their run is unlikely to last much longer, with the north London side facing a 3-1 first leg deficit and an away tie at Bayern Munich next Wednesday – which will be broadcast live on Sky Sports.
Another day, another Mayday
There was better news for BBC1's crime drama Mayday, which suffered a big drop in audience for Monday night's second episode.
Last night's third instalment was watched by 4.3 million viewers, a 16.3% share, identical to the 4.3 million (17.9%) who watched on Monday.
But it was still a long way down on the 6.2 million (24.7%) who tuned into Sunday night's opener.
The drama, which is airing on five consecutive nights on BBC1, will finish on Thursday.
Mayday was up against the return of Channel 4's 16 Kids and Counting, about some of the UK's biggest families, which had 2.4 million viewers, a 9.1% share, between 9pm and 10pm.
The overnights award doesn't go to...
The Matt Lucas Awards returned for a second series to BBC1 with 1.87 million viewers, a 13.8% share of the audience between 10.35pm and 11.05pm. It was down 20% on the channel's slot average over the last three months.
It was followed by BBC3's Cuckoo, which began a repeat run on BBC1 with 983,000 viewers, a 10.4% share.
Bluestone 42, BBC3's new comedy drama about a bomb disposal unit in Afghanistan, began with 799,000 viewers, a 4.2% share between 10pm and 10.30pm, up 37% on the channel's slot average.
All ratings are Barb overnight figures, including live, +1 (except for BBC channels) and same day timeshifted (recorded) viewing, but excluding on demand, or other – unless otherwise stated. Figures for BBC1, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 generally include ratings for their HD simulcast services, unless otherwise stated
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