Dr Who Fights Off Potter

The return of Doctor Who to BBC One’s Saturday night schedule easily outperformed ITV1’s repeat showing of family film Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets. The opener to the third series of the popular sci-fi drama attracted an adult audience of 6.94 million, compared to 4.02 million for Chamber Of Secrets.

Elsewhere, the start of reality show Any Dream Will Do, which sees contestants competing to become the lead in Joseph And His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, also proved a ratings winner for BBC One. The first show was watched by 6.16 million adults and had a 13% share of viewing.

Channel 4’s premiere of the Jack Nicholson comedy About Schmidt had a respectable if unspectacular audience of 1.65 million. Over on Five the latest weekly installment of popular US drama CSI: New York attracted 2.42 million viewers.

ITV1’s Sunday night Jane Austen season continues to perform well for the commerical broadcaster. The latest adaption, Persuasion, had 5.23 million watching, comfortably ahead of BBC One’s ratings challenged reality show Castaway (which only attracted 1.62 million).

The main competition to ITV1 came from the returning Louis Theroux, his programme The Most Hated Family In America was watched by 4.05 million adults on BBC Two between 9pm and 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, ITV2 and Sky One.

ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk