Whether it is a reflection of the ease with which the England football team is expected to qualify for the 2016 European Nations football tournament, a slight on the quality of match coverage by commercial broadcaster ITV, or indeed a sign of the popularity of a quiz show format, initial viewing figures suggest that for the evening of November 15th, more people tuned in to watch an episode of Pointless Celebrities on BBC1 than the England versus Slovenia Euro 2016 qualifier on ITV.

ITV averaged 4.56 million viewers, while the BBC show, a ‘Celebrity’ version of its popular weekday trivia quiz, averaged 4.99 million. Viewing figures for Pointless Celebrities also peaked higher than the Slovenia game, with more than 6.3 million people tuning in to the match, and the quiz show peaking at 7.26 million. Over the 90 minutes of the match, however, slightly more people watched the football compared with the quizzing.

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