20 million watch Wayne Rooney’s England goal in World Cup defeat to Uruguay
ITV’s World Cup coverage drew more than 18.5 million viewers across the entire game
The only bright moment in England’s 2-1 World Cup defeat to Uruguay last night was watched by more than 20 million ITV viewers.
A total of 20.18 million saw the moment at 9:30pm when Wayne Rooney slotted home his first ever World Cup tournament goal in the 75th minute to equalise for England, before Luis Suarez then sealed the win for the Uruguayans. That figure, which includes ITV HD and ITV+1, represents a 71% share of the total UK television audience at the time.
ITV’s coverage of the whole game, excluding the build up and half time analysis, averaged a healthy audience of 18.5 million.
The channel's entire coverage ran from 7pm – an hour before the 8pm kick off – to 10:30pm and averaged 13.1 million viewers, a 55% share, according to the overnights.
The figures for last night’s crunch group stage game were always expected to bring in a healthy audience because of the 8pm kick off.
England’s opening match against Italy on Saturday kicked off at 11pm but still saw nearly 14 million viewers stay up to watch England also go down 2-1.
An audience of 13.7 million, an 86% audience share, was still watching BBC1 when the whistle blew at 12.45am.
