TV Overnights: Around the World in 80 Days races to the top spot

BBC One’s Tuesday evening line-up proved to be a ratings-winner last night, with the all-new Around the World in 80 Days banking the all-important peak-hour top spot.

Eastenders started off the channel’s peak run at 7.30pm with a high of more than 8.7 million viewers and a 39.9% average audience share, followed by Holby City, which pulled in 5.8 million peak viewers and a 24.9% share.

BBC One held on to the peak audience between 9pm and 10pm aswell with the new six-part series Around the World in 80 Days, which follows six pairs of celebrities as they embark on a global relay race ahead of this year’s Children in Need.

Over 4.3 million peak viewers tuned in to see the race begin.  Comedians Frank Skinner and Lee Mack were the first to take on the challenge, which involved trying to get to Turkey within eight days without the use of air travel.

The new programme pulled in over a million more viewers than its closest terrestrial rival during the all-important peak-hour.  However, Five’s CSI: Miami did well to come second in the 9pm to 10pm ratings war with 2.6 million average viewers and a 11.7% share.

ITV1’s new reality show Joan Does Glamour, meanwhile, sat just behind Five with 2.5 million viewers and a 11.3% share.  The programme saw the former Dynasty star attempt to bring a bit of Hollywood glamour to three generations of a family living in Plymouth.

The remaining two channels battled it out for fourth place, with Channel 4’s new three-part documentary series The Force just managing to pip BBC Two’s long-running Horizon.  The Force attracted 1.9 million average viewers and a 9.6% share compared to Horizon’s – Do I Drink Too Much? – 1.8 million viewers and 8.2% share.

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.