Hell’s Kitchen loses out to BBC One’s Traffic Cops

BBC One’s Traffic Cops pushed ahead of ITV1’s new Hell’s Kitchen series in the 9pm to 10pm peak-hour ratings war last night, with more than 4.5 million peak viewers.

Over 4.1 million average viewers tuned in to see the Traffic Cops in South Wales deal with car-related crime, securing a 17.6% share for BBC One.

Meanwhile, Marco Pierre White’s Hell’s Kitchen, presented by Claudia Winkleman, continued with 3.6 million peak viewers and a 15% average audience share between 9pm and 10pm.

At the same time, Five’s police drama The Mentalist, with Simon Baker, attracted am impressive 2.4 million peak viewers and a 9.6% share.

Elsewhere, BBC Two’s new four-part series – Professor Regan’s Diet Clinic – pulled in 1.9 million peak viewers and a 7% average share, while Channel 4’s Cutting Edge documentary ‘Missing: Race Against Time’ picked up 1.6 million peak viewers and a 6.2% share.

Earlier on in the evening, the soaps battled it out for the overall highest ratings – ITV1’s Emmerdale just managed to pip BBC One’s Eastenders with 6.6 million peak viewers and a 28.9% average audience share.

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.