TV3 Pulled In A Record-Breaking Audience For Ireland’s Grand Slam Victory On Saturday

The country has just about recovered (speak for yourself, says you) from the double celebration that was Paddy's Day and Ireland's historic Grand Slam victory over England on Saturday. The pints were flowing, the music was playing and we've all been paying for it with our sore heads.

It seemed like the world and its mother were watching the game and new figures released by TV3 have confirmed that precisely 1,328,000 people tuned in watch Ireland take home only our third ever Grand Slam crown and our second in nine years. There was an average audience of 951,000 with a further 100,000 watching live on 3 Player.

These figures make the match the highest-rated programme on Irish television so far this year. What makes it all the more impressive is that rugby didn't feature in the top five most-watched shows in either 2017 or 2016 and the total of 1.3 million viewers places the historic game just behind both editions of The Late Late Toy Show from the past two years.

Over 1.3 million watched Ireland beat England on TV3, will likely be the most watched sport event all year & second only to Toy Show for highest ratings in 2018. For last two years top 20 most watched shows all on RTE & rugby didn’t make top 5. Maybe this is rugby country now? pic.twitter.com/EfzMnkEYnu
— Darren Cleary (@RadioCleary) March 20, 2018

Not a bad day's work all round. Roll on next year.