TV Overnights: ITV1’s new Collision secures over 8m viewers

ITV1’s new detective drama Collision secured the highest ratings during the all-important 9pm to 10pm slot last night with an impressive 8.1 million peak viewers.

The first episode of the new five-part crime series with Douglas Henshall – which is due to air in the same slot every night this week – pulled in more than 7.4 million average viewers and a 30.4% audience share during the peak-hour, putting it well ahead of its terrestrial rivals despite shedding viewers towards the end of the show.

BBC One’s David Attenborough series Life attracted around three million less average viewers than ITV1, settling on 4.3 million and a 17.5% audience share between 9pm and 10pm, while Five’s FlashForward picked up 2.3 million viewers and a 9.4% share.

BBC Two’s 9 o’clock film Starter for 10, a romantic comedy starring James McAvoy and Alice Eve, just managed to pip Channel 4 to fourth place in the peak-hour ratings war with 1.2 million average viewers and a 5.38% audience share.

Channel 4’s one-off feature length drama The Execution of Gary Glitter, which was set in an imaginary Britain where the death-penalty had been re-introduced, came just behind BBC Two.

The controversial programme, which starred Hilton McRae as the former pop star, picked up an equal 1.2 million average viewers but a slightly less 5.34% audience share between 9pm and 10pm.

Earlier on in the evening, the soaps battled it out for the top spot.  ITV1’s Coronation Street managed to claim the highest ratings with 9.4 million peak viewers compared to BBC One’s Eastenders‘ 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.