TV Overnights: Whitechapel and Spooks share the peak-hour ratings

ITV1’s new Whitechapel was forced to share the all-important peak-hour ratings with BBC One’s long-running Spooks last night.

The return of the drama starring Rupert Penry-Jones started off on a high of 5.8 million viewers at 9pm but lost the peak share to BBC One from 9.30pm onwards.  Spooks, meanwhile started off on a lower five million viewers at 9pm but ended on a high of 5.3 million viewers.

Overall, ITV1 just pipped BBC One to claim the top spot with 5.4 million average viewers and a 22% share compared to BBC One’s 5.2 million viewers and 21.1% share.

However, both channels came well ahead of their rival terrestrial channels during the 9pm to 10pm slot.  BBC Two’s Horizon: What happened before the Big Bang? claimed third place in the prime time ratings war with a much lower 1.5 million average viewers and 6.4% share.

Meanwhile, Rory and Paddy’s Even Greater British Adventure pulled in 1.3 million viewers and a 5.4% share for Channel 5, and just over a million viewers tuned in for Channel 4’s Titanic: The Mission.

Earlier on in the evening, the soaps dominated the Monday evening pre-watershed schedule as usual.  A dramatic Eastenders stole the show with more than 9.7 million peak viewers, although ITV1 did well to secure the peak ratings for 90 minutes with one episode of Emmerdale and two episodes of Corrie.

The second trip to Coronation Street proved most popular among viewers.  ITV1’s flagship soap attraccted a peak audience of 8.7 million viewers at 8.30pm.

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.