Celebrity Big Brother Reincarnation Fails To Hijack Ratings

This year’s incarnation of Celebrity Big Brother – Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack – failed to win the 9pm timeslot for Channel 4 last night, with an average of over 2.6 million adults tuning in to the new format.

The programme, which saw the likes of Matt Lucas of Little Britain fame perform a stint as ‘Big Brother’, took an 11.9% viewing share between 9pm and 10pm.

Meanwhile, BBC One’s one-off drama, George Gently, about an old-school detective struggling to come to terms with societal change in the 1960s, proved the most watched programme between 8.30pm and 10pm. The show was seen by an average of 4.7 million adults, giving BBC One a 21.1% audience share at the time.

Over on ITV1, the final instalment of the three-part Cold Blood took an audience of more than 3.5 million (16.3%), which followed The Bill, which was on between 8pm and 9pm and was enjoyed by just under 3.5 million (15.6%).

Earlier, a one-hour episode of EastEnders, which saw the departure of multiple characters, including the final farewell for Phil Daniels’ Kevin Wix, lured an average adult audience of over 9.2 million, giving BBC One a viewing share of 42.2% between 7.30pm and 8.30pm.

The second How To Look Good Naked New Year special, on Channel 4 between 8pm and 9pm, saw almost 2.3 million adults on average joining stylist Gok Wan to garner his hot tips for 2008.

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, ITV2 and Sky One.

BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com Channel 4: 020 7396 4444 www.channel4.com