TV Overnights: ITV1’s Law & Order secures the peak-hour top spot

ITV1’s popular Law & Order: UK series secured the highest ratings during the all-important 9pm to 10pm peak-hour with a high of 5.8 million viewers last night.

The second episode of the six-part crime drama, which stars Bradley Walsh and Freema Agyeman, pulled in over 5.5 million average viewers and a 21.5% audience share during the hour-long slot, putting it ahead of BBC One’s Hustle.

BBC One’s long-running crime drama, with Adrian Lester and Matt Di Angelo, came a close second to Law & Order in the peak-hour ratings war but didn’t attract quite as many viewers as its rival.  Hustle settled on 4.9 million average viewers and a 19.1% audience share.

However, both programmes’ ratings raced ahead of the three remaining terrestrial channels.  Channel 4’s new three-part series Gordon’s Great Escape, which follows the chef as he embarks on a culinary journey across India, picked up 2.3 million average viewers and a 9.2% share.

BBC Two’s The British Family – the second episode of the documentary series with Kirsty Young – pulled in a lower 1.9 million viewers, while Five’s Paul Merton in Europe came further behind with 1.3 million average viewers.

Earlier on in the evening, the soaps battled it out for the highest ratings.  ITV1’s Coronation Street just managed to pip BBC One’s Eastenders to the top spot with a high of more than 10.7 million viewers, compared to Eastenders‘ 10.4 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.