TV Overnights: BBC One’s new Famous Rich & Jobless claims the peak-hour share

BBC One’s new Famous Rich and Jobless banked the highest ratings during the all-important peak-hour top spot last night with more than 4.5 million peak viewers.

The first episode of the new two-part series, which sees Larry Lamb, Diarmuid Gavin, Meg Matthews and Emma Parker Bowles swap their fame to sample life on the poverty line, pulled in over 4 million average viewers and a 16.9% audience share during the 9pm to 10pm slot.

The hour-long peak-time programme helped BBC One to dominate the Tuesday evening ratings.  The channel secured a peak run from 5.30pm onwards, with the exception of just one 30-minute slot where ITV1’s Emmerdale stole the peak audience with 7 million viewers.

Eastenders attracted the highest ratings for BBC One, picking up more than 9.5 million peak viewers and a 39.4% average audience share between 7.30pm and 8pm, while Holby City peaked with almost 6 million viewers and a 23.8% share in the pre-watershed 8pm to 9pm slot.

Elsewhere, Channel 4’s documentary One Born Every Minute attracted 2.8 million average viewers and a 11.9% audience share to claim second place in the peak-hour ratings war, closely followed by Five’s ever-popular CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, which pulled in 2.4 million average viewers and a 10.3% share.

Meanwhile, ITV1’s Law & Order: UK, which stars Bradley Walsh and Freema Agyeman, picked up 2.3 million average viewers and a 9.9% audience share between 9pm and 10pm.

Finally, BBC Two’s Horizon – Is Everything We Know About the Universe Wrong? settled on 1.8 million average viewers and a 7.8% share.

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.