TV Overnights: BBC One’s Sport Relief special pulls in over 5.5m viewers

BBC One’s Million Pound Bike Ride: A Sport Relief Challenge secured the all-important peak-hour top spot last night with a high of more than 5.5 million viewers.

The one-off show, which followed celebrities including Jimmy Carr, Fearne Cotton and Davina McCall as they made their way between John O’Groats and Land’s End for charity, attracted over 4.9 million average viewers and a 20.6% audience share between 9pm and 10pm.

At the same time, ITV1’s The Bill pulled in more than 3.5 million average viewers and a 14.6% share, while Channel 4 and BBC Two both picked up an equal one  million average viewers each.

Channel 4’s Cutting Edge documentary The Lady and the Revamp secured a 4.2% share, while BBC Two’s new peak-hour programme The People’s Politician with Ann Widdecombe and Richard Caborn banked a slightly higher 4.4% average share.

Over on Five, meanwhile, the Live UEFA Europa League Football scored a high of almost four million peak viewers and a 12.2% average audience share between 7.30pm and 10.10pm.

Earlier on in the evening, the soaps battled it out for the top pre-watershed spot.  BBC One’s Eastenders pulled in the highest ratings with 9 million peak viewers and a 38.1% average share, while ITV1’s Emmerdale picked up 7.2 million peak viewers and Coronation Street attracted 7.9 million.

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.