The final episode of Desperate Housewives pulled in more than 4 million viewers to Channel 4 on Wednesday night, according to early figures.

The double-bill, shown over two hours from 10pm, averaged 3.71 million (a 25% share of the audience) with a peak of 4.4 million (21%) at the start.

The network's top show was Big Brother, averaging 4.56 million (21%) in an earlier 9pm timeslot. It narrowly beat ITV1's returning reality series Holiday Showdown, which had 4.47 million (20.6%) over the same period.

Coronation Street predictably topped the ratings table with 10.34 million (52.4%) at 7.30pm, followed by Emmerdale and The Bill with audiences of 8.64 million (47.7%) and 6.4 million (28.8%) respectively.

Later in the evening, Celebrity Love Island continued to plod along with just 3.22 million (15.6%) at 10pm.

Over on multichannel, a special historical edition of Sky One's Braniac ranked as the day's most-watched original programme with an audience of 546,000 (3.7%) at 8pm.

E4's first-run Hollyoaks attracted over three times more viewers than normal, with an average of 405,000 (3.3%) at 7pm.

Ratings data supplied by ViewingFigures.com