TV Overnights: ITV takes pride of place during prime time

ITV1’s coverage of The Pride of Britain Awards 2009 secured the highest ratings between 8pm and 10pm last night with 6.4 million peak viewers.

The annual awards ceremony, which was hosted by Carol Vorderman and featured celebrities such as David Beckham, Cheryl Cole and Michael Caine, attracted over 6 million average viewers and a 26.6% audience share during the two-hour prime time slot.

Earlier on in the evening, ITV1’s special hour-long Emmerdale also banked the top spot with a high of more than 7.4 million viewers and a 34.2% average audience share between 7pm and 8pm.

Over on BBC One, the third episode of Criminal Justice pulled in 4.3 million viewers and a 19% average audience share during the all-important 9pm to 10pm peak slot, and although the new thriller was overshadowed by ITV1’s Pride of Britain Awards, it still came well ahead of the remaining terrestrial channels.

BBC Two’s Dragons’ Den: On Tour picked up 1.7 million viewers and a 7.7% average audience share between 9pm and 10pm, closely followed by Channel 4’s The Secret Millionaire, which pulled in 1.6 million viewers and a 7.2% share.

Meanwhile, Five’s Farmer Wants a Wife series continued with Louise Redknapp trying to help a 44-year-old Yorkshire farmer look for his ideal woman,  However, the peak-time programme attracted just 696,000 viewers and a low 3% audience 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.