TV Overnights: The Silence secures the peak-spot for BBC One for third day running

BBC One’s new thriller The Silence banked the all-important 9pm to 10pm peak-hour for the third night running last night.

The hour-long programme, which is due to conclude at 9pm tonight, attracted more than 4 million viewers and a 17.2% average share, despite competition from ITV1’s popular crime drama Midsomer Murders.

The first episode of series 12 started on a high of 4.5 million viewers at 8pm, but settled on an average of 3.8 million viewers overall.  The ITV1 drama secured a 16.9% average audience share during the full 8pm to 10pm slot, losing out to both BBC One’s The Silence and Waterloo Road.

BBC One’s school drama dominated the pre-watershed 8pm to 9pm hour with 4.3 million peak viewers and a 19.5% share.  However, ITV1 claimed the early evening slots with Emmerdale and Coronation Street.

At 7pm, Emmerdale pulled in over 6.7 million peak viewers and a 34.8% share, while Corrie hit a high of more than 8 million viewers and a 37.9% share from 8pm.

Elsewhere, BBC Two’s new Dragon’s Den series, with Theo Paphitis, James Caan and Peter Jones, attracted a decent 3.4 million peak viewers and a 12.5% average share between 9pm and 10pm.

Over on Five, NCIS managed to draw in over a million peak viewers and a 4.2% share, while Channel 4’s new Cutting Edge documentary ‘Living with Brucie’ pulled in 2.5 million peak viewers and a 10.1% share during the peak-hour.

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.