Silent Witness Triumphs Over Hell’s Kitchen Final

BBC One’s new series of Silent Witness lured an average adult audience of almost 6.5 million last night, with the first of a two-part story line giving the channel a 29.6% viewing share.

The long-running forensic crime drama managed to eclipse the final of Marco Pierre White’s Hell’s Kitchen. A little over five million adults on average (a 24% share) tuned in for the last show of the series, which saw former world boxing champion Barry McGuigan beat Emmerdale actress Adele Silva to the title.

The soaps bolstered ITV1 earlier, with Coronation Street‘s first episode taking almost nine million adult viewers (46.8%), and the second show gaining just over 9.2 million (42.2%).

More than eight million watched EastEnders on BBC One at 8pm, seeing Phil Mitchell’s attempts at staying on the wagon and the increasingly sinister deliveries to Ian Beale – this time a coffin in his front garden. The programme managed to get a 38% audience share in its half-hour timeslot.

Panorama followed, revealing the overwhelming amount of paperwork that the British police force has to deal with, with almost three million (13.6%) witnessing the exposé.

In the same timeslot, BBC Two’s cooking show, Nigella Express, managed a respectable 13.1% share, with more than 2.8 million tuning in.

Overnight data is available each morning in mediatel.co.uk’s TV Database, with all BARB registered subscribers able to view reports for terrestrial networks, ITV2 and Sky One.

BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com