TV Overnights: Red or Black? continues to shed viewers

Simon Cowell’s latest ITV series Red Or Black? has got off to a poor start – not only have three contestants been axed from the show after background checks proved they were ‘unsuitable’, but ITV1 is losing viewers.

The new game show, with popular hosts Ant and Dec, started on Saturday with an average audience of 6.1 million viewers. It has seen ratings decline since then – down to 4.3 million average viewers between 8pm and 9pm last night; and 4.2 million viewers in the second 9.30pm to 10pm slot.

Red or Black? managed to gain the peak audience last night as it was carefully scheduled between Emmerdale and Coronation Street – two of ITV1’s highest-rating programmes. Emmerdale attracted over 6.5 million average viewers in the 7pm to 8pm slot, while Coronation Street peaked with more than 6.9 million viewers at the unusual time of 9pm.

Despite this, viewing figures still took a hit for ITV1 during Red of Black?. On BBC One, Who Do You Think You Are? claimed the top ratings after Corrie, peaking with 5.7 million viewers at 9.45pm.

BBC Two’s Horizon pulled in 1.3 million average viewers in the 9pm to 10pm peak-hour, while Channel 4’s Bin Laden: Shoot to kill programme picked up 2.2 million average viewers and a 10% audience share.

On Channel 5, Justin Lee Collins‘ show settled on a low 590,000 viewers, though Celebrity Big Brother pushed up the channel’s ratings to over two million viewers after 10pm.

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.