Midsomer Murders Rockets With 6.5 Million Viewers

ITV1’s Midsomer Murders pulled in more than 6.5 million viewers last night, beating Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise to the top spot.

The ITV1 murder series attracted an average 29.6% audience share between 8pm and 10pm, with a peak audience of 6.7 million viewers at 9.30pm.

BBC One’s film premiere of Spielberg’s War of the Worlds, starring Tom Cruise, fell below Midsomer Murders by more than 2 million viewers.

The sci-fi adventure film only attracted a 20% audience share between 8pm and 9.50pm, with 4.4 million viewers.

ITV1 also landed the most viewers on Friday evening, with the double episode of Coronation Street pulling in more than seven million viewers each.

The earlier programme attracted a peak audience of more than eight million viewers with a 43.8% audience share, while the second show gained a 33% audience share with an average of 6.9 million viewers between 8.30pm and 9pm.

Elsewhere, Friday saw the final episode of BBC One’s Celebrity Masterchef, pulling in a peak of more than five million viewers, while ITV1’s repeat of A Touch of Frost grabbed an average 4.3 million people.

Channel 4’s Big Brother peaked on Friday night, with 3.6 million people tuning in to see Rebecca being evicted from the house, between 9pm and 10pm.

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 and key multi-channel stations.

ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com

BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk Channel Four: 020 7396 4444 www.channel4.com