Champions League final scores strong ratings...

[dutchman]

Manchester United's 3-1 defeat to Barcelona scored over 9m viewers on Saturday night, early viewing figures indicate.



The Champions League final at Wembley delivered 7.85m (33.2%) to ITV1 between 7pm and 10.25pm, peaking with 11.1m (42.3%) at 9pm, and matching the Wednesday night tie two years ago when Barcelona won 2-0.

Coverage on Sky Sports 1, broadcast between 6pm and 10.30pm, averaged 1.34m (6%), also peaking at 9pm but with a more modest 2.25m (8.6%) - enough for Sky Sports to usurp Channel 5 to fifth place in the primetime league tables with a 6.2% share.

BBC One suffered the biggest loss of viewers, as Doctor Who lost 700k week-on-week for 'The Almost People', which took 5.05m (24.4%) from 6.45pm.

Sandwiched between the sci-fi drama, So You Think You Can Dance could only muster 2.59m (15.7%) from the early time of 5.45pm, beaten by Animals Do The Funniest Things's 2.7m (15.6%). At 7.30pm, 2.42m (10.8%) tuned in for the results.

For the first time in its run, Don't Scare The Hare slipped below the 1m mark, fetching 959k (7.6%) from 6.45pm, while Casualty drew 3.84m (14.7%) for an episode titled 'When The Bough Breaks'.

Channel 4's Million Pound Drop Live surged to a slot-winning 2.41m (14.1%) for its final instalment between 10pm and 11.30pm, adding 108k on +1. Prior to the gameshow, a screening of Titanic had 1.67m (7.2%) from 6.30pm, with a further 195k on timeshift.

Over on BBC Two, classic editions of Dad's Army and Absolutely Fabulous amused 2.25m (10.7%) at 7pm and 1.79m (7.4%) at 9.30pm, after which 1.86m (9.3%) watched Have I Got A Bit More News For You from 10pm.

Triple CSI was solid for Channel 5: 841k (3.3%), 1.75m (8.9%) and 809k (6.5%) tuned in for CSI: Miami (9pm), CSI: NY (10pm) and the original CSI (11pm).

Overall, ITV1 thrashed BBC One in the terrestrial primetime tables with 30.4% (+1: 0.2%) to 14.2%. Channel 4 claimed third with 8.4% (+1: 0.8%), followed by BBC Two with 7.2%, and Channel 5 with 4.2%.

BARB ratings data supplied by Attentional