Tom Daley's Olympic bronze win watched by 15.9m

Tom Daley's Olympic bronze win watched by 15.9m
Tom Daley's Olympic bronze win watched by 15.9m (Image credit: PA Wire/Press Association Images)

Just under 16m viewers watched Tom Daley win a bronze medal during Saturday night's Olympics coverage on BBC One - the final night of competition ahead of the closing ceremony on Sunday. The teenager won a peak audience of 15.9m as he took to the diving board in the 10m men's platform final - while his performance also scored BBC Three their highest audience of the games, with 6m people watching coverage of the final on that channel before it moved to BBC One and the dedicated Olympics 1 channel. Mo Farah also scored a good audience as he picked up his second gold medal of the tournament. The runner's triumph in the 5,000m was seen by a peak audience of 12.9m on BBC One and BBC Olympics 1 - although five million fewer viewers saw that race than saw his win in the 10,000m the previous Saturday - the same night that Jessica Ennis and Greg Rutherford also took gold. And viewing figures for Tom's victory still fell short of the 20m who tuned in to watch Usain Bolt's record breaking run in the 100m finalk. The most-watched event of the games remains the opening ceremony, which attracted a peak of 26.9m viewers and a further 1.7 on the BBC's iPlayer service. The closing ceremony will be screened on Sunday night on BBC One from 9pm, with the likes of One Direction, Muse, Spice Girls and Take That expected to perform.

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.