Waterloo Road’s return failed to fight off The Bill

BBC One’s return to Waterloo Road pulled in over 5 million peak viewers but failed to beat ITV1’s long-running police drama The Bill.

The first in the new series of the school drama, starring Eva Pope and Neil Morrissey, attracted 4.6 million average viewers and a 18.5% audience share between 8pm and 9.30pm.

BBC One’s new benefit fraud investigative programme On the Fiddle? followed and managed to secure over 4 million viewers and a 16.9% average audience share in the 30 minute slot leading up to the BBC’s classic 10 o’clock News.

However, both new shows failed to match ITV1’s ratings, with The Bill banking more than 5.5 million average viewers between 8pm and 9pm, and Taggart picking up over 4.1 million average viewers between 9pm and 10pm.

Meanwhile, Kirstie and Phil’s comeback to Channel 4’s new Relocation Relocation 12-episode long series attracted more than 3.3 million peak viewers and a 12.5% audience share between 8pm and 9pm.

The latest update from the Celebrity Big Brother house followed on Channel 4 at 9pm, picking up 3.2 million peak viewers in the last 15 mins, with an average of 2.9 million during the hour-long programme.

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.

BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com Channel Four: 020 7396 4444 www.channel4.com