New Mistresses attracts almost 5 million peak viewers

The return of BBC’s popular drama Mistresses attracted more than 4.9 million peak viewers last night, securing BBC One with the highest ratings compared with its terrestrial rivals during the all-important peak slot.

Around 4.8 million average viewers tuned in to see first episode of the second series, which is based around the tangled love lives of four female friends, banking a 20.8% average audience share for BBC One between 9pm and 10pm.

At the same time, Five’s CSI: Crime Scene Investigation managed to pip ITV1 to take second place in the peak-hour ratings war, with more than 3.1 million peak viewers and a 13% average audience share.

ITV1’s conclusion of In the Line of Fire, the documentary that follows members of the Metropolitan Police’s firearms division CO19, pulled in 3 million peak viewers and a 12.6% average audience share.

Meanwhile, BBC Two’s Horizon – Can We Make a Star on Earth? – attracted 1.8 million viewers and Channel 4’s penultimate Boys and Girls Alone picked up 1.6 million.

However, the soaps claimed the highest ratings of the evening once again, with ITV1’s Emmerdale managing to take the lead over BBC One’s Eastenders.

Emmerdale‘s hour-long special peaked with 7.4 million peak viewers, securing ITV1 with a 30.4% average audience share between 7pm and 8pm, while Eastenders‘ pulled in 7.1 million peak viewers – a 28.5% average audience share – between 7.30pm and 8pm.

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.

BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com Five: 020 7550 5555 www.five.tv Channel Four: 020 7396 4444 www.channel4.com