BBC One’s Any Dream Will Do went head to head with ITV1’s Grease Is The Word on Saturday night, with Joseph’s technicolour dreamcoat coming out on top.
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s latest brainchild, which follows on from last year’s successful search for Maria, gained an average adult audience of more than four million, a 27.3% viewing share, compared to just over 3.6 million (19.8%) for the search for Danny and Sandy.
Earlier, an average of more than 5.1 million adults joined Doctor Who and his new assistant Martha as they battled the Daleks in 1930s New York, giving BBC One a 32.5% share between 6.30pm and 7.30pm.
Long-running hospital drama Casualty also proved successful for the channel, gaining 5.8 million adult viewers (29%), whilst CSI:NY was Five’s most popular programme of the evening, with a figure of almost 2.3 million (11.5%) between 9.30pm and 10.30pm.
Meanwhile, Dame Edna’s latest attempts at embarrassing her celebrity guests on ITV1 netted around 1.9 million adult viewers. The veteran Aussie cross-dresser secured a 10.7% viewing share for the channel as stars like Susan Sarandon visited the Dame’s luxury spa.
ITV1’s other bright new hope for the season, Kingdom starring Stephen Fry, gained the largest primetime audience of Sunday evening, with more than eight million adults tuning in.
The first of six programmes about a team of country lawyers gained a 35.3% viewing share for the channel, compared to 12.3% (2.8 million) for Superstorm on BBC One and 10.3% (just over 2.3 million) for Channel 4’s Superskinny Me: The Race To Size Double Zero.
The first part of This Is David Gest, a six-part documentary series following the wacky life of the rubbery featured eccentric, lured 2.4 million adults to ITV1 on average, giving the channel a 15.6% audience share.
Over on BBC One, a repeat of Extras starring Jonathan Ross and My Family‘s Robert Lindsay, was watched by almost 2.2 million adults (13.3%).
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 Channel 4: 020 7396 4444 www.channel4.com Five: 020 7550 5555 www.five.tv