Law & Order: UK races ahead in the ratings war

ITV1’s British re-make of Law & Order with Bradley Walsh continues to draw in the peak-time viewers.

Last night, the crime drama attracted more than 6.4 million peak viewers and a 26.2% average audience share during the all-important 9pm to 10pm slot.

Law & Order:UK pushed ITV1 well ahead of its rival terrestrial channels during the hour, with BBC One’s Comic Relief: The Fool’s Guide only pulling in half the number of viewers.

David Tennant’s one-off documentary, celebrating the 21 years since Comic Relief started, picked up 3 million average viewers and a 12.9% share between 9pm and 10pm.

At the same time, BBC Two’s Heroes banked 1.7 million viewers and a 7.4% share, while Channel 4’s Cutting Edge documentary Addicted to Surrogacy gained 1.3 million and a 6% share.

Five’s Extreme Fishing with Robson Green proved to be a ratings winner for the channel once again – compared to its average 9pm to 10pm viewing figures – with 1.5 million viewers and a 6.4% share, pushing it ahead of Channel 4 during the peak hour.

However, ITV1 had the best run of the evening, starting with Emmerdale at 7pm, which picked up over 7.6 million peak viewers and an impressive 33.4% share.

Two trips to Coronation Street followed (between 7.30pm – 8pm and 8.30pm – 9pm), attracting the highest ratings of the evening – the first episode pulled in 9.7 million average viewers and a 41.9% share, while the second picked up 9.5 million viewers and a 39% share.

ITV aired an unscheduled documentary looking at Jade Goody’s recent cancer battle, which was on in place of Pets Undercover: Tonight in between Corrie – the programme picked up almost 4 million viewers but failed to compete with BBC One’s Eastenders, which secured more than 9.2 million average viewers and a 37.9% 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.