TV Overnights: BBC One wins a prime time peak run

BBC One banked a prime time peak ratings run last night with Eastenders, Holby City and Crimewatch.

Eastenders started off on a high of more than 8.5 million peak viewers at 7.30pm, followed by the BBC’s long-running hospital drama, which secured over 5.2 million viewers in the 8pm to 9pm slot.

In the all-important 9pm to 10pm peak hour, Crimewatch hit home with 5.1 million peak viewers and a 21% average audience share.

In the same peak-hour slot, BBC One’s closest competitor was Channel 5 with CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. The popular US show attracted more than 2.2 million average viewers and a 9.9% audience share.

ITV1’s final Home Is Where the Heart Is settled on 1.8 million viewers and a 8% average share between 9pm and 10pm, while BBC Two’s The Country House Revealed and Channel 4’s The Secret Millionaire banked an equal 1.6 million viewers each.

Meanwhile, the all new Geordie Shore – imagine TOWIE-comes-to-Newcastle but loosely based on the MTV US hit Jersey Shore – attracted a spike audience for MTV at 10pm.

The ‘reality’ show – the new craze following Bafta-winning The Only Way is Essex’s success for ITV2 – secured over 345,000 peak viewers (compared with the 19,000 for Paris Hilton’s Dubai BFF in the 9pm to 10pm slot).

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.