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England defeat is most watched sport programme since 2018 • ITV’s broadcast surpasses Line of Duty’s final episode at 12.1m
England’s Rugby
World Cup final defeat was the most watched
British TV event of the year so far, with a peak audience of 12.8 million tuning in to see Eddie Jones’ side lose to
South Africa 32-12 on Saturday morning.
Not only did the match on ITV beat the final episode of series five of Line of Duty, which had 12.1m viewers, but it was also the most-watched sports programme on any channel since the 2018 football World Cup. This year’s best figures had been for the Women’s World Cup semi-final between England and
USA (11.8m peak), the
Wimbledon men’s final (10.4m) and cricket’s World Cup final (7.8m).