If Saturday belonged to rugby then Friday night was all about the drama. Emmerdale (ITV1, 7pm) initiated the onslaught of soaps in Friday evening’s schedule with an average audience of 6.84 million viewers tuning in as Holly returned from the hospital.

The UK’s TV audience is still under the spell of Coronation Street’s latest whodunit storyline with last night’s episode pulling in 8 million viewers. The episode, which went out at 8:30pm, took a shocking twist as Peter Barlow confessed to Frank’s murder and secured an audience share of 33% in the process.

Rural soap Emmerdale secured the biggest average audience on Wednesday night with 6.2 million viewers. The episode, which saw village bad girl Holly Barton struggle with the moreish nature of heroin, captured 31% of the available audience.

Tuesday night’s prime-time viewing kicked-off with Emmerdale at 7pm, attracting ITV1’s biggest audience of the night with 6.9 million viewers.

As usual, Friday night belonged to the soaps with Coronation Street and EastEnders attracting the highest audiences of the weekend for their respective channels.

Wednesday evening’s episode of Emmerdale (7pm) secured the biggest audience of the day, bringing in 6.7 million viewers for ITV1. 31% of the available audience watched as Chas and Cameron sat down for a good natter about their respective love lives but opted for a spot of pashing instead.

EastEnders was the most watched programme on Tuesday night, bringing an audience of 8.1 million to BBC One. The episode went out at 7:30pm and 36% of the available audience watched as Mandy accused Lorraine of stealing money from Walford’s version of Lord Sugar, Ian Beale.

Monday night’s TV viewing was dominated by the build up to Frank Foster’s murder in Coronation Street, which brought in a massive 10 million viewers.

Soaps were the main draw for viewers on Friday night with the first episode of Coronation Street securing the biggest audience of the entire weekend. A peak audience of 8.7 million viewers tuned in to see Sally Webster deal with the reality that relationships just might not be her thing.

Soaps were littered throughout Thursday night’s prime-time schedule with the top four most watched programmes of the day falling into the high-drama category.