Overnights: What’s Really in Our Food? takes the lead

BBC One’s What’s Really in Our Food? secured the highest ratings during the all-important prime-time slot last night with more than 4.2 million peak viewers.

The one-off documentary, which attempted to shed light on the murky world of food fraud, pulled in over 4 million average viewers and a 18.6% share between 9pm and 10pm.

At the same time, the first episode of the six-part crime series Trial & Retribution, which was first shown in January, attracted a high of 2.7 million viewers and a 11.9% share for ITV1.

Five’s CSI:Miami didn’t come far behind with almost 2.5 million peak viewers and a respectable 11% average share during the hour-long slot.

Meanwhile, Channel 4’s Big Brother, which usually airs at the later time of 10pm, picked up 2.2 million average viewers and a 10.3% share between 9pm and 10pm – its highest mid-week ratings since the first week of this series.

At the same time, BBC Two’s new financial drama Freefall, starring Aidan Gillen, Dominic Cooper and Girls Aloud’s Sarah Harding, kicked-off with a high of almost 2.3 million viewers, although slipped down to an average of 1.8 million throughout the 90 minute slot.

Earlier on in the evening, rival soaps Emmerdale and Eastenders each shared a slice of the peak audience when they came head-to-head between 7.30pm and 8pm.

ITV1’s hour-long Emmerdale, which started at 7pm, banked the top spot for 45 minutes with a high of 6.2 million viewers, however, BBC One’s Eastenders managed to steal the peak audience in the last fifteen minutes with 5.5 million peak 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.