Brazil's Alan Oliveira's "controversial win" over Oscar Pistorius in the Paralympics' T44 200m men's athletics final attracted 4.5 million viewers on Sunday night, marking the highest five-minute peak yet for Channel 4's coverage, according to Jason Deans of the London GUARDIAN. Channel 4 averaged a 12.9% audience share across the day – ahead of ITV1's 9.2% "and the network's best Sunday ratings figures for seven years." Oliveira's Gold Medal win had a "five-minute peak audience" of 4.5 million viewers at around 9:30pm, including 100,000 on the Paralympics Extra service, with the rest on Channel 4. The U.K.'s David Weir's Gold in the T54 5,000m drew a five-minute peak of 3.8 million viewers "from 10:30pm." Earlier in the day the U.K.'s Jessica-Jane Applegate's Gold in the S14 200m freestyle swimming "attracted a peak of 2.4 million." Channel 4's evening Paralympics 2012 program averaged 3.3 million viewers and a 15% audience share between 7pm and 10:45pm. In the afternoon, the network's Paralympics coverage made Channel 4 "the most-watched channel between 3:15pm and 6pm" (GUARDIAN, 9/3). In London, Jason Deans noted that on Friday, the second day of Channel 4's live Paralympics coverage, the network had a five-minute peak of 3.8 million at 9pm for athletics coverage, including 200,000 on Paralympics Extra. Channel 4 was the "most-watched network for 15 minutes" from 9pm, averaging 3 million viewers. Overall, Channel 4's Paralympics 2012 program averaged 2.4 million viewers and an 11.5% audience share between 7:30pm and 10:30pm (GUARDIAN, 9/3).
