Mitchell Brothers’ Return Boosts BBC

BBC One came out on top in a head to head with ITV last night, competing with its rival in a night of soap excitement as the Mitchell brothers returned to Eastenders‘ Albert Square.

The return of lovable thugs Phil and Grant drew a massive 11.4 million viewers to BBC One between 8-8:30pm, with a peak of 11.9 million in Eastenders‘ final 15 minutes.

ITV’s bookending of the BBC soap with Coronation Street netted 10.8 million on average for the first half and 9.8 million for the programme’s second episode of the night, before the BBC again took the lead, securing an average of 7.1 million viewers with crime drama Waking The Dead.

ITV’s competing detective drama, Vincent, failed to top BBC One, averaging 5 million viewers over 90 minutes.

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.

BARB: www.barb.co.uk