Fame Academy showed signs of making a ratings ascent last night, reaching a new series high and beating ITV.

The main show, screened over an hour from 8pm, drew an average of 3.9 million viewers and a 20.7% audience share, up 600,000 on last Wednesday.

An Only Fools and Horses repeat immediately after averaged 6.0 million viewers, providing a strong inheritance for the Fame Academy results show at 9.40pm. The 20-minute programme pulled in 5.5 million viewers and a 27.1% share, beating the first half of ITV1's Wednesday night movie Instinct, which had 4.9 million (24.0%).

Last week the reality show was blamed for BBC One's lowest weekly ratings share this year.