Overnights: Torchwood continues to bank the top spot

BBC One’s five-part Torchwood – Children of Earth series continued to secure the highest peak-time ratings last night with almost 6 million viewers.

The Doctor Who spin-off sci-fi drama, which is due to air every night this week during BBC One’s prime-time slot, attracted 5.8 million average viewers and a 27% audience share between 9pm and 10pm.

At the same time, ITV1’s two-part Trial & Retribution, starring David Hayman and David O’Hara, peaked with a high of 3.4 million viewers and a 15.5% audience share.

Channel 4’s Big Brother managed to pull in over 2 million viewers and a 9.3% average audience share during the peak-hour, which is around a million less viewers than the same episode in last year’s series.

Meanwhile, BBC Two’s new Taking the Flak, a seven-part comedy series with Bruce Mackinnon and Martin Jarvis, picked up 1.2 million average viewers and a 5.8% share.

Five’s 9pm Jodie Foster film Panic Room kicked-off with just 889,000 viewers but did manage to hit the one million mark after 10pm, securing a 5% average audience share.

Earlier on in the evening, ITV1’s classic Wednesday night drama run, which is due to be moved to Thursday evening to make room for the broadcaster’s new Wednesday football line-up (see ITV unveils new drama line-up), pulled in the highest ratings.

Coronation Street attracted an impressive high of 8.4 million viewers and a 41.5% average share, compared to Emmerdale‘s 6.1 million viewers and The Bill‘s 5 million viewers.

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.