Law & Order:UK premieres with 6.8 million viewers

ITV1’s new British version of the popular American crime drama Law & Order kicked-off to a good start last night with 6.8 million peak viewers.

More than 6.3 million average viewers (a 26.2% audience share) tuned in to see the highly-anticipated new glossy production, which stars Bradley Walsh, Bill Paterson and Freema Agyeman, securing ITV with the peak audience during the all-important 9pm to 10pm slot.

Elsewhere, Zoe Wanamaker’s Who Do You Think You Are? pulled in 5.9 million peak viewers and a 23.3% average audience share for BBC One, while series three of Heroes kicked-off with a respectable 2.7 million peak viewers and a 9.6% share for BBC Two.

However, Channel 4’s The Real Casino Royale – a story of the 1960s Mayfair casino king John Aspinall – failed to impress viewers and picked up below-average ratings for the broadcaster during the 9pm to 10pm peak slot, with just 934,000 viewers and a 3.8% average audience share.

Five’s sci-fi thriller film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, The 6th Day, didn’t do much better, with just 858,000 viewers and a 4.5% average audience share.

Once again, the soaps pulled in the highest ratings of the evening – Coronation Street attracted more than 10.2 million peak viewers, securing an impressive 42.1% average audience share for ITV1 between 7.30pm and 8pm.

BBC One’s Eastenders fell below with 9.3 million viewers and a 36.9% average audience share between 8pm and 9pm.

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.