Channel 4 Hits Ratings High With Friends And Big Brother

Channel 4 experienced a night of record ratings last Friday as millions of viewers tuned in to watch the last ever episode of Friends and the highly anticipated opening night of Big Brother 5.

Unofficial overnight viewing figures from BARB show that a record 8.6 million people tuned in for the hour-long Friends finalé, which secured an impressive 36% share of the available audience between 9pm and 10pm.

Audiences for the show peaked at just under 9 million, making it the highest rating episode of Friends ever shown on Channel 4. It is understood that advertisers paid up to £100,000 for a single 30-second commercial spot during the programme (see Advertisers Line Up For Channel 4 Friends Finalé).

Channel 4’s ratings success continued into the evening with an average of 6.7 million reality-TV fans staying tuned to watch the new Big Brother contestants enter the house at 10pm. The programme dominated Friday night viewing with an average 34.7% share of the available audience.

A peak of 7.2 million people tuned in for the first instalment of this year’s reality-TV extravaganza, which secured a 37.6% share of viewing at its height, making it the most popular Big Brother launch ever shown on Channel 4.

The bumper night of viewing makes Friends and Big Brother the highest rating shows to appear on Channel 4 this year. The previous highest were Grand Designs with 5.9 million viewers and Ramsay’s Kitchen with 5.6 million viewers.

Commenting on Friday night’s ratings victory, a spokesman for Channel 4 said: “We are thrilled that so many fans tuned in to say goodbye to Friends and that the latest series of Big Brother has kicked off so strongly.”

Both programmes also performed well for advertisers with Friends recording a 62.7% share of 16 to 34 year-old audiences and an impressive 41.5% share of lucrative ABC1 viewers. Big Brother‘s 10pm show secured a 60.9% share of the elusive youth audience and a 36% share of ABC1s.

Last week Channel 4 chairman Luke Johnson revealed that he is hoping to announce the appointment of a new chief executive to replace the outgoing Mark Thompson by the end of July at the latest. However, a spokesman for Channel 4 confirmed that no candidates have yet been approached, despite the widespread expectation that Thompson would leave the broadcaster to replace Greg Dyke as the next director general of the BBC (see Johnson To Name New Channel 4 Chief By End Of July).

Channel Four: 020 7396 4444 www.channel4.co.uk

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