A peak of 5.2 million viewers tuned into Channel 4 on Friday night to watch political activist Kitten become the first of this year’s housemates to get evicted from the Big Brother house.
Unofficial overnight viewing figures from BARB show that an average of 5 million viewers watched the programme, which secured an impressive 25% share of the available audience between 10pm and 10:30pm.
This represents a slight increase on the equivalent show of last year’s Big Brother, which saw an average of 4.9 million viewers tune in to see twenty year-old nursery assistant Anouska become the first to leave the house.
Audiences for this year’s eviction were boosted by the fact that 24-year-old anarchist, Kitten, became the first housemate to get thrown out of the house for persistently breaking the rules set by Big Brother.
The earlier 9pm show attracted an average of 4.1 million viewers, which equates to a 20.2% share of the available audience. Ratings peaked at 4.4 million as the housemates anxiously awaited news of Kitten’s impending eviction.
The fifth series of Big Brother burst to our screens earlier this month with an average of 6.7 million people tuning in for the first episode of the reality-TV extravaganza. Ratings for the series so far have averaged 4.6 million viewers and 23% of the available peak-time audience (see Channel 4 Hits Ratings High With Friends And Big Brother).
Big Brother’s Little Brother has also performed well with presenter Dermot O’Leary helping to attract an average of 1.7 million viewers to the show last week. Audiences for the spin-off programme peaked at 2.1 million on Friday.
Channel Four: 020 7396 4444 www.channel4.co.uk
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