Second Ashes to Ashes beats Hell’s Kitchen final

The second episode in the new eight-part Ashes to Ashes series secured the highest ratings during the all-important peak hour last night, despite the fact it was up against the grand finale of Hell’s Kitchen.

BBC One’s fantasy drama pulled in an impressive 6 million peak viewers and a 24.3% average audience share between 9pm and 10pm, putting it a fair way ahead of its ITV1 rival in the peak hour ratings war.

The Hell’s Kitchen final, which saw former Dynasty star Linda Evans crowned queen of this year’s celebrity cooking competition, attracted 5.3 million peak viewers and a 21.3% average audience share.

At the same time, Channel 4’s Henry VIII: Mind of a Tyrant peaked with 1.7 million viewers while BBC Two’s Heroes picked up a high of 1.2 million viewers.

Five’s Extreme Fishing with Robson Green fell behind its terrestrial rivals during the 9pm to 10pm slot, with a peak audience of 1.1 million viewers and a 4.3% average share.

However, the soaps triumphed earlier on in the evening and banked the overall highest ratings of the night – the second episode of ITV1’s Coronation Street just pipped BBC One’s Eastenders to the top spot, with almost 9 million peak viewers compared to Eastenders‘ high of 8.2 million.

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.