Life On Mars Firmly Grounded In Peaktime

The return of 70s time-glitch crime drama, Life On Mars, drew almost 5.5 million adult viewers on average to BBC One last night, giving the channel a 23.7% viewing share in the all-important 9pm to 10pm timeslot.

Series two sees DI Sam Tyler (John Simm) more established in his 1973 life but still struggling with his confusion and the boundaries between reality and fantasy. Tuesday night’s series two debut was watched by over one million less viewers than the start of the first series at the beginning of 2006, but was still the most watched programme at the time.

The show gained an average adult audience of 6.8 million when it begun last January (see Life On Mars Eclipses Celebrity Showdown), slipping to around six million before netting 6.7 million for the series finale (see BBC Scores Drama Win With Life On Mars Finale).

ITV1’s crime drama, Trial and Retribution, put up a good fight with an average audience of around 5.2 million adults, giving the station a 23% viewing share, whilst BBC Two’s The Verdict, which sees 12 celebrities acting as the jury in a fictitious court case, was seen by around 1.6 million (7.3%), compared to the almost two million who tuned in on Monday (see Lost’s Audience Still Out At Sea On Sky One).

Channel 4’s Never Did Me Any Harm, which sees four modern families turning back the clock for two weeks so that the children can live as their parents did when they were young, was seen by just over two million (8.7%), with the residents of the Chatsworth Estate in Shameless taking 2.4 million (13%) straight after.

Five’s CSI: Crime Scene Investigation yet again proved a success for the broadcaster, with 2.5 million adults netting the channel an 11% viewing share during Life On Mars.

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 Five: 020 7550 5555 www.five.tv