TV Overnights: ITV1’s Midsomer Murders banks the prime time ratings

Midsomer Murders banked the all-important prime time ratings last night with more than 5.9 million peak viewers.

The first episode of series 14, on between 8pm and 10pm, attracted 5.5 million average viewers and a 23.9% audience share.

It seems the recent controversy surrounding the long-running crime drama, after its producer Brian True-May made some interesting comments about the show’s Englishness, has not deterred viewers.

On BBC One, Waterloo Road and Masterchef pulled in 4.6 million and 4.7 million average viewers respectively, while BBC Two’s new two-part peak-hour series The Truth About Lions picked up 1.2 million average viewers and a 5.5% share between.

The 9pm to 10pm peak-slot also saw Channel 5’s NCIS win 1.6 million viewers and Channel 4’s Jamie’s Dream School secure 1.4 million viewers.

In the early evening slot, ITV1’s Emmerdale banked more than 6.7 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.