More than seven million people watched Newcastle United's FA Cup defeat to Arsenal, BBC presenter Gary Lineker has announced.
Newcastle were knocked out of the competition by the Gunners as they eventually lost 2-0 after extra-time at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday evening.
Emile Smith Rowe finally broke the deadlock in the 109th minute of the third round tie, having earlier seen a red card decision against him overturned following a VAR review.
As Newcastle pushed for an equaliser, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang put the game beyond their reach by adding a second goal for the home side late on.
It could have been different for Newcastle, had Andy Carroll taken either of two golden chances in normal time.
Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the match was played behind closed doors - but it was shown live on BBC One and the BBC iPlayer.
According to Lineker, six million tuned in on television, with another £1.2m watching on the iPlayer - 7.2m in total.
The former England striker tweeted: "6 million of you watched @Arsenal v @NUFC on BBC1 plus 1.2m on iplayer yesterday.
"That’s pretty impressive for a game that didn’t produce a goal until extra time."
Lineker finished his post with a thumbs up emoji - and it sparked a string of replies from football fans.
"We’ve not got much else to do Gary," said on.
Another responded: "We are all in lockdown Gary. It was either that or watch the Masked Singer..."
Meanwhile, a third person said: "Just shows how bored we all are!"
Speaking after the match, Lineker said: “For Newcastle, it’s pretty depressing, isn’t it? They lost to Brentford in the Carabao Cup, now this defeat. That’s no wins in seven now, is it crisis time?
“I’m not rubbing it in.”
Newcastle legend Alan Shearer replied: “You don’t have to remind me.
"The first half was really poor. Again, they didn’t have any intent in getting forward, the second-half was a little bit better, they had one or two chances.
"The guys defended better, I thought, it’s such a shame for Ciaran Clark, because I thought he had a very good game but it was his mistake that led to the goal and Andy Carroll did a lot of good work as well considering his amount of game time.
"But it wasn’t to be. When you have the chances that Newcastle had, you have to put it in the back of the net.”
