TV Overnights: BBC One secures a prime time peak run

BBC One claimed the top spot all evening yesterday with a peak run of Eastenders, Holby City, Around the World in 80 Days, BBC News and Make Me White.

The BBC’s flagship soap started off its prime time ratings run at 7.30pm, pulling in more than 8.7 million viewers and a 39% average audience share. 

Holby City followed with 5.8 million viewers and a 24.2% share, which put it ahead of its closest rival programmes between 8pm and 9pm – BBC Two’s James May’s Toy Stories and ITV1’s Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?.

Around the World in 80 Days, meanwhile, secured 4.1 million viewers and a 17.8% share for BBC One during the all-important 9pm to 10pm peak hour, brushing off competition from ITV1’s 7 Days on the Breadline, which picked up 3.4 million viewers, and Five’s CSI: Miami, which pulled in 2.6 million viewers.

At the same time, BBC Two’s Horizon ‘Fix Me’ attracted 1.5 million average viewers and a 6.8% share, while Channel 4’s final episode of The Force – a real-life crime series – picked up 1.3 million average viewers and a 5.6% share.

Later on in the evening, the long-running BBC News at Ten easily banked the top spot at 10pm with more than 4.1 million average viewers.

BBC One’s new Make Me White documentary programme, with Watchdog presenter Anita Rani, followed with over 2.7 million peak viewers at 10.35pm.

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.