TV Overnights: Over 5m tune in for the last ever Big Brother launch night

The Big Brother launch night secured the all-important prime-time ratings yesterday evening with a high of more than 5.1 million viewers.

Davina McCall opened the last-ever series of the reality show to introduce the new housemates, which include Welsh minister Dave, ex-serviceman amputee Steve and Jordan wannabe Corin.  More than 4.6 million average viewers and a 19.7% audience share tuned in to Channel 4 to see the housemates enter their new home between 9pm and 10.35pm.

Channel 4’s latest Big Brother series knocked ITV1’s new Father & Son drama off its peak-hour top-spot.  The penultimate Father & Son episode, which concludes at 9pm tonight, attracted 4.2 million peak viewers and a 15.2% average audience share between 9pm and 10pm.

At the same time, BBC One’s Junior Apprentice drew to a close as the final entrepreneurs battled it out for a chance to win Sir Alan Sugar’s prize.  The show picked up more than 4.5 million peak viewers and a 17.1% average audience share during the 9pm to 10pm peak-hour.

Meanwhile, Five’s NCIS pipped BBC Two’s new Make Me a New Face: Hope for Africa’s Hidden Children programme with 1.9 million average viewers and a 8.1% share compared to Two’s 1.6 million viewers and 6.7% share.

Earlier on in the evening, the soaps dominated the pre-watershed ratings.  BBC One’s Eastenders pulled in more than 7.6 million viewers but failed to over-shadow ITV1’s Coronation Street, which saw the Tony Gordon storyline come to an explosive end in front of 7.9 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.