TV Overnights: Silent Witness steals the peak ratings for BBC One

Silent Witness easily secured the all-important peak-hour ratings for BBC One last night.

The long-running crime drama attracted more than 7.2 million average viewers and a 27.4% audience share between 9pm and 10pm, seeing off competition from ITV1’s The Biggest Loser.

The first episode of the new series, which will see seven couples embark on a weight-loss journey with host Davina McCall, achieved a lower 3.5 million audience and a 13.3% average ratings share for ITV1 during the peak-slot.

Elsewhere, Channel 4’s new One Born Every Minute – a real-life documentary series following the maternity unit at a hospital in Southampton – attracted 2.5 million viewers and a 9.6% average share, while BBC Two’s new Horizon: What Is One Degree? pulled in 1.5 million viewers and a 5.8% share.

Over on Channel 5, the prime time film Payback banked 1.1 million average viewers and a 5.1% share between 9pm and 11.05pm.

Earlier on in the evening, the soaps dominated the pre-watershed slots. ITV1’s Coronation Street just pipped BBC One’s Eastenders to the top spot, pulling in 10.6 million peak viewers compared to Eastenders‘ 10.3 million.

In the post-10pm slot, the first episode of the new Shameless series aired on Channel 4. The 22 part well-reviewed series, which is due to continue every night this week, got off to a good start, peaking with 3.1 million viewers and a 15.8% average audience share between 10pm and 11.05pm.

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.