TV Overnights: The Body Farm debuts with 5.4m viewers

BBC One’s new prime time drama The Body Farm debuted with 5.4 million peak viewers last night.

The forensic crime drama, starring Waking the Dead actress Tara Fitzgerald (pictured), secured the all-important peak-hour ratings with 5.2 million average viewers and a 22.2% audience share.

BBC One banked a ratings run from 7.30pm onwards with Eastenders (7.9m average viewers) and long-running hospital drama Holby City (4.8m viewers), before The Body Farm at 9pm.

In the post peak-hour slot, BBC News at Ten pulled in 4.6 million average viewers and a 23.9% share, while the new two-part documentary The Bomb Squad picked up over three million viewers at 10.30pm.

Elsewhere, BBC Two’s new four-part series Hairy Bikers’ Meals on Wheels got off to a good start with 2.2 million average viewers and a 9.5% share between 9pm and 10pm.

At the same time, ITV1’s new 71 Degrees North series, with hosts Paddy McGuinness and Charlotte Jackson, returned with 2.1 million viewers and a 9% average audience share.

Meanwhile, Channel 4’s prime time schedule featured Seven Dwarves, which secured 1.3 million average viewers at 9pm, Shameless (1.3m viewers) at 10pm and the first episode of series three of True Blood (479,000 viewers) at 11.05pm.

On Channel 5, the popular CSI:Miami banked over 1.5 million average viewers between 9pm and 10pm, before Big Brother attracted 1.3 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.