ITV Secure Huge Numbers for Manchester United’s Champions League Misery

Over 9 million television viewers tuned into ITV on Tuesday night to watch Real Madrid dump Manchester United out of the Champions League in controversial fashion.

An average audience of 9.07 million, order a share of 35.3%, was attracted to the game ‘the world would stop’ to watch, from 7:30pm.

According to BARB, the first-leg in Madrid, aired on Sky Sports 2, averaged 1.82 million viewers between 6-10:15pm, with a peak of 3.2 million.

The figures for the Old Trafford clash are particularly impressive when compared to the 2011 Champions League final, played at Wembley between Manchester United and Barcelona.

7.85 million (33.2%) were delivered to ITV1 between 7-10.25pm that night, with a peak of 11.1 million (42.3%) at 9pm.