TV Overnights: BBC One secures a prime time peak run

BBC One banked the highest ratings all evening yesterday with a peak run of Eastenders, Holby City and Around the World in 80 Days.

The channel’s flagship Albert Square-based soap started off the prime time line-up with more than 8.8 million peak viewers and a 38.9% average audience share between 7.30pm and 8pm.

Holby City followed with a high of 5.8 million viewers and a 23.6% average share during the pre-watershed 8pm to 9pm slot, beating competition from BBC Two’s James May’s Toy Stories and ITV1’s Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

Meanwhile, the fourth episode in the new six-part series Around the World in 80 Days, which follows celebrities as they embark on a round the world race without the use of air travel, pulled in 4.3 million peak viewers and a 17% share during the all-important 9pm to 10pm peak-hour.

ITV1’s final 7 Days on the Breadline came in second place with 3.3 million viewers and a 13.3% share, followed by Five’s ever-popular CSI: Miami, which picked up more than 2.7 million peak viewers and a 11.2% share.

Meanwhile, BBC Two’s Horizon, which asked Who’s Afraid of a Big Black Hole, attracted 1.8 million average viewers and a 7.7% share between 9pm to 10pm.

At the same time, Gordon Ramsay’s new F Word series pulled in a fairly low 1.7 million average viewers and a 7.4% share for Channel 4, putting it in fifth place against its terrestrial rivals in the peak-hour ratings war.

BBC One went on to secure the peak audience post-10 o’clock as well with BBC News at Ten and its all-new programme Black Widow Granny? starring director Norman Hull, which picked up a respectable 4.3 million peak viewers from 10.35pm onwards.

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.