TV Overnights: New Spooks wins the top spot for BBC One

A high of more than 5.6 million viewers tuned in to BBC One during last night’s 9pm to 10pm peak-hour to see the return of Spooks.

The first episode of series nine of the spy drama attracted over 5.5 million average viewers and a 23.2% audience share during the all-important slot, despite competition from ITV1’s Bouquet of Barbed Wire.

The ITV1 drama with Trevor Eve pulled in a lower 4.3 million average viewers and a 18.2% share during the hour-long slot.

Meanwhile, the penultimate My Family’s Crazy Gap Year picked up 1.4 million viewers and a 6% share for Channel 4 and Unequal Opportunities banked 1.1 million viewers and a 4.7% share for BBC Two.

Over on Channel 5, the new four-part comedy Rory and Paddy’s Even Greater Adventures, with Rory McGrath and Paddy McGuinness, peaked with 1.4 million peak viewers and a 5.8% average share between 9pm and 10pm.

At 10pm, the second episode of Channel 4’s Jamie’s Amercian Food Revolution attracted over 1.5 million viewers and a decent 7.9% average audience share, although BBC One held the peak audience from 9pm onwards.

As usual, the soaps dominated the pre-watershed ratings. BBC One’s Eastenders claimed the highest overall viewing figures (9.4 million peak viewers), although ITV1 held the ratings for a longer period – between 7pm and 8pm, and then again at 8.30pm.  The second episode of Corrie won the highest ratings for ITV1, peaking with 8.8 million viewers.

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.