Overnights: New Tricks tops The ‘new-look’ Bill

BBC One’s New Tricks secured the highest ratings during the all-important prime time slot last night with more than 7 million peak viewers.

The second episode of the new eight-part series attracted over 6.7 million average viewers and a impressive 28.7% audience share during the 9pm to 10pm slot, beating ITV1’s revamped Sunhill police drama to the top spot.

ITV1’s new Thursday night drama line-up proved popular in the early part of the evening, with both Emmerdale and Coronation Street securing the peak audience during their slots.

The first episode of Emmerdale pulled in 5.4 million viewers at 7pm, while the second picked up a high of 6.6 million viewers at 8pm.

Coronation Street followed at the new time of 8.30pm – after being moved from its usual Wednesday night slot to make way for the upcoming football season – with a high of 7.7 million peak viewers.

However, the new-look post-watershed police drama, The Bill, which opened with a special two-part story with guest star Julia Ford, failed to bank the top spot during the 9pm to 10pm peak-slot.

The hour-long drama picked up 4.5 million average viewers and a 19.1% audience share, a drop from the 4.8 million average viewers The Bill pulled in last Thursday between 8pm and 9pm.

Elsewhere, BBC Two’s Mock the Week proved to be a hit once again with 2.3 million average viewers and a 9.9% share, while Channel 4’s one-off documentary The World’s Oldest Mums attracted 2 million average viewers and a decent 8.5% share.

Meanwhile, Five’s popular series, The Mentalist, with Simon Baker, picked up 1.5 million average viewers and a 6.6% audience share during the 9pm to 10pm peak-hour.

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.